Managing Associate Sheena Cassidy Hope was interviewed by the BBC on the topic of “no fault” divorce, the most significant reform to divorce law in the last 50 years, whereby married couples will be able to begin divorce proceedings without apportioning blame.
Sheena explained: “Family lawyers have been campaigning to remove any element of blame from a divorce for decades now. It’s been a long time coming and something that is very much welcomed. What this change does is remove an element of artificial hostility from the process. Quite often couples that are looking to separate don’t want to attribute blame. The reasons for divorce are quite often a lot more complicated than something that can be reduced to a few paragraphs of text in a divorce application. [Blame] sets things off on the wrong footing, particularly where there are children involved, and these parents are going to need to cooperate in relation to their children for years to come.”
Sheena also discussed why survivors of abuse previously found the fault-based process difficult, and why it will now be much harder to dispute a divorce than previously.
The segment starts at 41.15 minutes – view here.