In Brief...World News Review A Divorce at the Click of a Mouse
article by Cecil Maranville, Peter Eddington
Warring couples in Britain can now end their marriage quickly and cheaply-using the Internet.
Warring couples in Britain can now end their marriage quickly and cheaply-using the Internet.
For just £79.99, couples can file divorce papers with the click of a mouse-if neither partner contests the split.
In its first week, more than 300 British couples downloaded papers from the site-potentially saving hundreds or even thousands of pounds in solicitors' fees and court costs.
The petition, affidavit and decree nisi are drafted, based on answers users give to a series of questions on-line. On-line lawyers check the details and send the forms to the court.
Patricia Hardcastle, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Church, described the service as "repellent."
"There's something very impersonal about having to do it on-line. Nobody wants to go through it, but at least we had to do everything face-to-face, which might have made people stop and think," she said.
But Richard Cohen, legal director of the Desktop Lawyer service, said: "Just because it's easy, it doesn't mean it's going to incite people to get divorced. Up till now people had to use a solicitor; we've made a daunting task a bit easier," he told The Observer (1999 Sky Online, July 29,1999).
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