Divorce-Online, under the leadership of CEO Mark Keenan, a pioneer of ‘online divorce’ in the nineties,, has been at the forefront of championing consumer rights.
Over the past 23 years, Divorce-Online has aided more than 180,000 clients, delivering substantial savings of £150 million in legal fees.
Court fees for divorce have long been a contentious issue, often acting as a significant obstacle for couples seeking to end their marriages.
The existing court fee of £593 imposes an additional financial strain on individuals during an already challenging period in their lives, often pushing them to resort to credit cards to cover these expenses. Divorce-Online staunchly asserts that funding the court service on the basis of broken relationships is both unjust and morally reprehensible.
The introduction of no-fault divorce in April 2022 marked a noteworthy milestone, streamlining the divorce process and making it 99% ‘online’. While this reform was a positive step, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is now proposing an increase in divorce application fees from £593 to £652, a £59 hike. Divorce-Online vehemently opposes this move, contending that it imposes an undue financial burden on the general public.
Divorce-Online has taken decisive action by launching a petition to stop the proposed fee increase. The company calls on all family law professionals to join this cause and help send a clear message to the Ministry of Justice.
A comment on The Society Law Gazette aptly noted, “Hopefully, the good people at the MOJ are reading these comments. Have they factored in how much they will be refunding in fee remissions? They can’t have done. They wouldn’t be able to make that projection. Therefore their projected increased revenue is far from accurate. Unfortunately, this is just like most other ‘big businesses’ now… the fees get hiked, and the service levels drop. Fee remission is present in as many as 35% of divorce applications, according to our latest research.”
