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Signed & sealed?

21 June 2012 / David Burrows
Issue: 7519 / Categories: Features , Divorce , Family
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David Burrows breaks the seal on Kim v Morris

 

Most divorce cases proceed as a simple administrative exercise, performed by court staff and a district judge, in exchange for a court fee of £340 (the same applies to “applicants” for civil partnership orders, to whom this article also applies). The process is entirely statutory; and thus any judicial discretion must be prescribed by statute. A case has to be properly pleaded: under Family Procedure
Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) forms mostly do that job.

Divorce procedure (FPR 2010, Pt 7) is based on extinct county court rules: interrogatories and discovery only went in April 2011. If a cause is defended, precision pleading is still essential. Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973), s 1(3) requires the court to “inquire” into the facts. If the facts (set out in s 1(2)) are proved, the marriage will be found to have irretrievably broken down (s 1(1)) and a decree will follow (s 1(5)). Though MCA 1973 does not say so, the decree is in the first
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