28 February 2023
If you are covering the Family Court Statistics and particularly the data around divorce and probate delays, please see the following comment from Rachael Griffin, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter:
Probate
"New data shows that getting a probate grant is leaving people at a difficult time waiting longer and longer. On average, it now takes about 14 weeks to get a probate grant after submitting the application. If someone has left a will, the wait is even longer at 23 weeks, and without a will, it's 18 weeks.
"More people are using digital means to apply for probate grants, which is a good thing as it could make the process easier over time and we will hopefully see this long wait time reduce. In this quarter, 89% of the applications and 88% of the grants issued were done digitally. This is a small increase from last year, showing that more people are getting comfortable with online processes.
"Out of the total probate grants issued, nearly half were managed by legal professionals while the other half were personal applications. Probate is a complicated process and making errors can prolong the process if people choose to do the process themselves.
"While making the system digital should in theory make things smoother it is a concern is that the time taken to issue these grants has gone up. Especially for digital probate grants, the wait has increased from four weeks last year to about nine and half weeks now. This could be a sign of growing delays in the system. It's crucial to find ways to speed up the process while ensuring that all necessary checks are done, especially as the delay could be tough for families waiting to settle their loved one’s estate. Similarly, often property sales are predicated on a grant of probate and entire chains can fall apart if the process drags on.
Divorce
"The landscape of divorce proceedings in the UK has witnessed a notable shift recently with the advent of the new divorce legislation taking effect from 6th April 2022. According to recent data, there were 24,624 divorce applications made between April to June 2023, marking a 30% decrease from the same quarter in the previous year. This reduction could be a reverberation from the initial surge of cases post the new law's introduction, which aimed at easing the process and reducing potential conflicts amongst divorcing couples.
"A salient feature of the new legislation is the provision for joint divorce applications, which accounted for 25% of the total applications in the stated period, showing a slight but positive upward trend from the previous year. This indicates a growing inclination towards collaborative divorce proceedings, a step away from the adversarial nature the process once was.
"One of the notable strides is the continued adaptation to digital divorce procedures, with 95% of the total applications being handled digitally. This digital transition not only modernises the process but possibly offers a less daunting option for couples to navigate the divorce proceedings.
"The new legislation also introduced a mandatory waiting period at key stages, evidently impacting the average time from application to conditional order, which saw a rise to 38 weeks, and to final order, which stood at 62 weeks. However, the elongation in process time ensures that there is a thorough deliberation before final decisions are made.
"This additional time should be used for couples to ensure that all assets are split properly, pensions are often forgotten and hopefully this additional time will give people pause for thought. The division of pension assets, be it through offsetting, pension sharing orders, or pensions attachment orders, requires a meticulous approach to ensure a fair settlement.
"It’s important to get legal or financial advice to navigate the intricacies the new legislation and ensure the financial future of the divorcing parties remains secure."
