Couples who wish to divorce must wait at least a year from the date of their wedding, which is commonly regarded as meaning one year and one day. However, a HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) computer glitch mistakenly allowed the couples to apply for divorce one day early.
At least 11 of the individuals affected had since remarried, while others had given notice of intention to remarry, 19 had commenced financial remedy proceedings, and 17 final financial remedy orders had been made by the courts. It was not known whether any children had been born whose status might be affected.
The Lord Chancellor applied for a declaration that, on the date of the final order, the 79 couples’ marriages no longer subsisted.
Handing down judgment in December, in The Lord Chancellor v 79 Divorced Couples [2024] EWHC 3211 (Fam), the court held the final divorce orders were voidable not void and that, unless any of the 158 individuals sought to argue otherwise before the end of January, the orders were legally valid.
A judge initially spotted the glitch in November 2022 and alerted HMCTS, but a search was not conducted until mid-April 2024 when 96 cases submitted a day early were discovered. Final orders had been made in 79 of these cases.
Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the Family Division, giving the lead judgment, said: ‘It is of note that if HMCTS had conducted a proper investigation in November 2022 when the problem was first drawn to their attention, it is likely that none, or almost none, of the 79 cases would have had final orders made and the present application would not have been necessary.’
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