Divorce applications wrongly approved after computer error, high court hears

A hearing in London on Wednesday was told that 79 divorces were incorrectly approved after the applications were submitted a day before the law allows. An online system failed to detect that the submissions came a year after marriage, when the law only permits divorces from a year and a day.

Lawyers for the lord chancellor have asked the court to rule that the divorces are “voidable” as opposed to “void”, meaning they would still stand, claiming that voiding the divorces would have “highly unfortunate and highly unwelcome” consequences for the couples concerned.

The court was told that between April 2022, when the validation system of the online portal was introduced, and April 2024, a total of 96 divorce applications were made on the first anniversary of marriage. Of these, a final divorce order was granted in 79 cases.

None of the divorcees appeared at the hearing and were not represented. The court heard that several respondents had expressed “significant distress” in the possibility they may not be legally divorced from their former partners. Some of the divorcees had either since remarried or were planning to, the court heard.

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