Member Article

Recession keeping the brakes on North West divorce

The fragile state of the UK economic recovery remains an influencing factor as people continue to delay divorce.

That’s according to over two thirds (80%) of North West family lawyers surveyed in Grant Thornton LLP’s tenth annual matrimonial survey.

Almost half (47%) of North West solicitors who took part in the survey said that the recession was continuing to drive down the number of divorces. The same percentage of respondents (47%) said couples had cited financial worries as a recession-related contributory factor in the breakdown of their relationship.

The poll also found that people in their 40s are the most common age group to split from their marriages. Some 95% of family lawyers report that the average age of their clients divorcing was 40 to 49. Some 50% also said they had seen an increase in the average age of divorcing parties.

Louisa Plumb, an associate director within the Forensic and Investigation Services at Grant Thornton in Manchester said: “The recession has had a way of making couples pragmatic – even those whose relationships have broken down. It seems there were more people splitting-up but having to live under the same roof because the financial difficulties of going their separate ways were insurmountable.

“Now the housing market is beginning to show signs of life and the general economic picture is less gloomy that may start to change, with a corresponding rise in the divorce rate.”

In the North West the couples’ main reason for seeking a divorce is an extra marital affair (28%), which is ahead of the national average figure (24%). Across the UK as a whole growing apart/falling out of love (29%) is the main reason cited for marital breakdown (26% in the North West).

Some 29% of solicitors across the region cited the increased number of litigants acting for themselves due to lack of public funding as the biggest single issue facing family law, with a further 21% highlighting the removal of Legal Aid for most family law cases as a key issue.

The largest number of North West cases concerned marriages that had lasted between 11 and 20 years featured (55%) whilst the formal legal grounds used to achieve divorce remain overwhelmingly focused on unreasonable behaviour (95%).

In recent years there have been a number of cases with one of the parties’ attempting to mislead the proceedings by failing to provide full disclosure of assets. Only 13% of North West family lawyers said they had had no cases which revealed concealed/missing assets.

While concealment of assets seems likely to continue, the majority (93%) of those polled did not think it had increased from 2012.

Louisa Plumb of Grant Thornton in Manchester added: “Concealment has a long history in divorce proceedings and if anything, legal changes in the last few years appear to have made it harder for those suspecting hidden assets. There have also been some very high profile public cases such as Prest v Petrodel and Young v Young, which are of significant interest within the legal community.

“What is clear is that concealment, particularly in corporates, will require detailed analysis of the financial records in order to confirm the true position.”

A further issue highlighted in the report is the effect of cuts in public funding for family proceedings. Since 2008, lawyers surveyed have said the key issues facing family law have been the economic downturn and availability of assets in each year. However, this year over a quarter (29%) of lawyers stated their most concerning issue was people representing themselves in court for family proceedings.

This is likely to become an increasingly significant issue, burdensome on heavily congested Courts and on both of the parties involved in divorce hearings.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .