ABSTRACT
The party seeking a divorce must attend a Divorce Information Meeting which will normally be at least three months before initiating the process to obtain a divorce. Both parties may attend either the same or a different information meeting, but it will not be essential except for the party wishing to initiate proceedings, unless the other party wishes to make or contest any application in relation to either child or financial matters in those proceedings.Thus, in practice both parties may need to attend information meetings and in any event it will normally not be possible for the party seeking the divorce or separation to pass to the next stage unless that party has attended such a meeting at least three months previously.At the information meeting, which will be on a one to one basis, (and not as once ludicrously proposed, apparently in all seriousness, on a group basis!) there will be encouragement to attend marriage guidance, and an information pack will be handed out through which it is sought to inform those seeking divorce of some of the crucial matters which they should be aware of before embarking on the process.There is to be a personal element in the information meeting, however, in that it will actually be conducted by someone who is qualified and appointed and has no financial or other interest in any marital proceedings between the parties. The information meeting is one of the aspects of the process which we as yet know least about in that it will be the subject of regulations yet to be made, but three important points will be laboured at this stage: the intended role of mediation in the divorce process, the availability and value of marriage counselling, and (via emphasis on the importance to be attached to the welfare, wishes and feelings of children and on how the parties may acquire a better understanding of ways in which children can be helped to cope with the breakdown of the marriage) the Children Act approach to ongoing parenting despite the break up of the family.
