Glitch let couples apply for divorce early, minister reveals
Judges are considering how to resolve the issue after a ‘technical fault’ let 67 couples get divorced after applying prematurely.
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Your support makes all the difference.A computer glitch allowed 67 couples to get divorced before they were legally allowed to, the Ministry of Justice has admitted.
Justice minister Lord Bellamy said a “technical fault” in a new system had allowed couples to apply for divorce after a year of marriage, rather than the legal minimum of a year and a day.
In a written statement to Parliament, Lord Bellamy said the error had been “rectified as soon as it came to light” – seven months after the system was introduced in April 2022 – but 67 couples had received a final divorce order after being allowed to apply prematurely.
He said: “The independent judiciary are looking at how best to deal with the cases. Until they reach a decision, all final divorce orders of the court will remain final orders.”
There has been an online system for divorce proceedings since 2019, which included a function to stop applications being made before couples had been married for a year and a day.
But a new system was introduced in April 2022 following changes in divorce law that brought in “no-fault” divorce, and it was this system that had the fault.
The error was corrected in November 2022, with more than 90,000 applications having been made in the intervening months.