Fault-based Divorce London-style | Seriously: It's About the Tuna Casserole?

Recently Justice Matthew Thorpe, commented about accusations of fault that have come before him in divorce petitions to support allegations required as grounds for a divorce in England. Justice Thorpe said that there would have be no need for the painful allegations and investigations if the government had enacted past proposals to allow no-fault divorce. The current system, said the judge, "seem to represent the social values of a bygone age.”

Under current English law, there are only five grounds for divorce, including adultery and abandonment. Grounds for divorce alleged in about half of the cases now filed fall into a general allegation of "unreasonable behavior." In this category, one party has to accuse the other of acting so unreasonably that living together has become intolerable.

Apparently, there is quite a lot of interest in establishing no-fault divorce in England. In a speech last month, Justice Nicholas Wall, president of the family division of England’s high court, said that “I see no good arguments against no-fault divorce.” In Britain, where few divorce cases go to trial, one of the parties has to make an allegation in support of grounds for divorce, and the judge has to rule on that the alleged grounds are sufficient, unlike in the United States where all 50 states have no-fault divorce.

One British divorce lawyer,  Vanessa Lloyd Platt, recently compiled a list of some of the more bizzare allegations used in petitions accusing the other spouse of acting so unreasonably that living together has become intolerable. Here's a short version:

• My husband insists I dress in a Klingon costume and speak to him in Klingon.
• My wife has maliciously and repeatedly served me my least favorite dish, tuna casserole.
• My husband has not spoken to me for 15 years, communicating only by Post-it note.
• My wife “would without justification flirt with any builder or tradesman, inappropriately touching them and declaring that she could not stop herself.”
• My husband keeps his pet tarantula, Timmy in a glass case next to the matrimonial bed even though I've requested that Timmy sleep elsewhere.
• My husband has atrocious body odor.
• My husband repeatedly takes charge of the remote television controller, endlessly flicking through channels and fails to stop at any channel that I request.
• My wife spitefully tampers with the TV antenna and throws away his cold cuts. [Wife, on the other hand, said Husband usurped her control of the washing machine and failed to appreciate her revulsion for “intensely farmed meat.”]

Let's hope the law in the UK changes soon. What could be more simple than "the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved?" Let's let people have some dignity during the procedure.

You may read the entire article here:  Lyall, Sarah. Tuna Again? In Fault-Finding Britain, It’s a Cause for Divorce. New York Times. April 7, 2012

Comments

[Desiree Silverstone]

It is indeed troubling that someone needs to be at 'fault' and to 'blame' during a period in which both parties are usually feeling vulnerable, stressed, anxious, hurt and angry. Having to blame or take the blame is quite punitive during an already difficult period. It is ironic that the Government does not want to be seen to be a Nanny State and yet it advocates like an authoritative parent would, that they can only dissolve their marriage on the basis that someone is at fault. It is time that the divorce laws reflect that people have a right to decide if they no longer wish to remain married and that they do not need to justify their decisions to anyone.

At the same time, the Government has now advocated that couples who are separating or getting a divorce should use family mediation as an alternative as it is less acrimonious and also less stressful, whilst at the same time keeping in place that one of the parties has to take the blame. This in itself can make the mediation process difficult and has the potential of promoting animosity.