The Ministry of Justice has published divorce hot spots in order to urge couples to use divorce mediation to ease the dispute rather than fighting it out in court.
Legal Aid will stop for most family matters after March 2013 but will remain for divorce mediation. The Government will be putting more money into supporting mediation and have said they want to make it compulsory for separating couples to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAMs) before starting court actions concerning children and finances.
Family Justice minister Lord McNally said: “All too often I hear stories of families going through expensive and traumatic court hearings, but we know that when working out how to split assets and arrange time with the children, mediation is a far simpler and cheaper approach for everyone and leads to better outcomes.”
Outside of Greater London, in the period Oct 2011 – Sept 2012, Birmingham came first with 2799 divorce petitions whilst Weston-super-Mare came second with 2447 divorce petitions whilst. Then came:
Leicester: 1,831
Romford: 1,783
Coventry: 1,776
Norwich: 1,775
Bristol: 1,705
Croydon: 1,672
Nottingham: 1,611
Chelmsford: 1,567
However, Weston-super-Mare soon challenged their top spot when it emerged that an online divorce company were starting its divorce petitions in Weston as the Ministry had told them it had more capacity than other busier courts.