Getting divorced to become easier

ENDING a marriage by mutual consent is to be made easier under a new law being drawn up by the Justice Ministry.

The draft legislation will put a cap on lawyers' fees in the most straight-forward cases to "make divorce easier to deal with".

The Justice Ministry says the bill will also make it possible for couples with no children to divorce without the need to have their case heard by a judge in a family court - provided they both agree to the split.

Instead, each of the partner's lawyers would work together to draw up a collective agreement setting out how the couple's property, belongings and money is to be divided. The contract would then be passed to a judge to be rubber-stamped.

According to Le Figaro, legal fees in the most straight-forward divorce cases are currently anywhere in the region of €600 to €2,000 per person.

The law would cap these at about €800-1000, but lawyers would have the right to charge more if the case proved more complicated than initially thought.

A Justice Ministry spokesman told Le Figaro that work has already been done to simplify divorce proceedings.

Until 2005, the average couple needed two court hearings - and an average wait of nine months - for the split to go through.

Since then, the waiting time has been cut to about four months and only one court hearing is needed.

Tatyana Gladskih - Fotolia.com