Blame-free divorce, but how fair?

• Summarises main provisions in Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, and rules made thereunder.
• Compares new law with previous law. Identifies problematic areas.

This article provides a summary of the main provisions in the new divorce and civil partnership dissolution legislation, and in the rules which have now been made under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 (DDSA 2020) which legislated for the new law. A second article will pick up on a small number of legislative shortcomings in the new scheme which require further thought.

DDSA 2020 received royal assent on 20 June 2020. Draft rules under it were already under serious discussion by the Family Procedure Rules Committee (the committee delegated to produce rules for family proceedings) in December 2020. It took until 17 January 2022 for those rules to be laid before Parliament. And, though we are told commencement is intended to be 6 April, no commencement order has yet