The Ministry of Justice is moving to make it easier for persons to make that “final” break as Jamaican couples file for divorce.
Each month an average of 200 Jamaican couples file for divorce.
Many divorce filings have created a backlog in the court
system because they all have to be signed by puisne judges, according to
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck.
Chuck proposes to amend the law
to allow for a master in chambers to grant the initial divorce order
dubbed a decree nisi. He will be submitting to the Cabinet and
Parliament.
This is a good thing since this will allow more filings to move quickly through the legal system.
A decree nisi is a court order which allows the party to
whom it applies to show cause why the divorce should not proceed.
To anyone who objects to the divorce, the decree nisi allows
six weeks to tell the court why they object. With a mutual consent of
the spouses, it can often be set aside.
The matter will then be passed to a puisne judge after six
weeks. The divorce is completed and the partners are no longer married
once a puisne judge issues a decree absolute.
1,853 marriages
ended in divorce, according to a report from a Statistical Institute of
Jamaica 2009. For every 100 marriages, this worked out to a failure
rate of 8.65 divorces.
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