Divorce fees not to be increased

At last some good news - the Ministry of Justice has abandoned plans to increase the divorce application fee from £410 to £750 after an outcry over the proposed increase.

The reasons for not going ahead included:

• There was no justification for an increased fee
• People would be deterred from seeking a divorce if the fee went up
• Courts shouldn’t make further profits out of the breakdown of marriages.
• If the costs were higher, more people would stay in violent or unhappy marriages
• It could discriminate against women - more women than men seek a divorce so higher fees would have a disproportionate impact on women.
• Recent reforms to fee remissions mean that fewer people qualify so more would struggle to pay the fee.

Sadly though, the fee isn’t going down - the Ministry of Justice said that a decrease couldn’t be justified “in the current financial climate”.

At least it’s not going up!