Online Divorce Application Update

On 3 February 2021, HMCTS updated its guidance for submitting an online divorce application.

The updated guidance reflects new functionality allowing a petition to be marked as an urgent jurisdiction case and permitting details to be provided (new page 25).

The other main amendment to the guidance is to the section on jurisdiction (page 12), which provides details of the jurisdictional criteria in the guidance notes. However, this appears to be incomplete. Further, the criteria specified in the image of the online portal next to the notes appear to be the criteria under Brussels II Revised, which ceased to apply to divorces started after the end of the Brexit transition period at 11pm (UK time) on 31 December 2021. However, the fourth and fifth criteria in the image appear to reflect the wording of the criteria that currently apply after the end of the Brexit transition period, rather than that under Brussels II Revised. 

All in all, the update continues to show that the courts are still to get to grips with the online portal and it’s functionality. Maybe they will get it right by 21 June 2021!

The contents of this article do not constitute legal advice and are provided for general information purposes only