IMPORTANT – Divorce Proceedings – Delays due to Court Backlogs

Divorce Proceedings Delays

It is really important that all clients who are presently going through divorce proceedings, understand the following.

• Delays, for reasons that are entirely out of our control, are increasing due to backlogs in the regional Divorce Centres.
• Unfortunately, due to austerity measures in 2015 the number of centres processing divorce paperwork was reduced dramatically.
• The 47 Regional Courts were replaced by 11 Divorce Centres.
• Further cuts have been made to the number of staff working in these remaining centres.

Bradford Divorce Centre – Issues:

• Email responses can take between 6 – 12 weeks.
• Multiple attempts have to be made to speak to a member of staff. This is particularly frustrating with urgent enquiries.
• Applications are having to be sent via the post as the online portal is problematic and unreliable.
• The current COVID-19 pandemic has only added to the delays.

Whilst we continue to do all we can to maintain our own service standards, the current Court and Divorce Centre issues are resulting in divorce proceedings taking far longer than we would normally expect.

We completely understand the frustrations that may arise because of this but please try to understand that this situation is not of our making.

 

If you have any concerns about your matter then please contact our Family Law team on 01535 662644.