The number of people seeking an end to their marriages through judicial separation or divorce has fallen dramatically to its lowest level for a decade.
The Courts Service annual report for 2008 shows that there were 5,398 applications for judicial separation, divorce or nullity last year, compared with 6,236 the previous year, a drop of almost 15 per cent. Only the figure for nullity applications has remained relatively constant at 55.
The previous lowest figure was in 2004, when there were 5,667 applications, down from a high of 5,929 in 2002. Since 2004 the trend has shown a gradual increase in those seeking to end their marriages, until last year.
Legal sources have pointed to the difficulties in the property market as a reason why judicial separation and divorce, which normally involve the adjustment of property, as a major contributing factor to a reduction in the number seeking these legal remedies. The cost of legal proceedings may also a deterrent.
Further evidence of the impact of the recession on family law is the increase in the number of appeals to the High Court against Circuit Court decisions, which went up by 27 per cent last year.
The majority of applications for judicial separation came from wives (83 per cent in the High Court, 73 per cent in the Circuit Court), but in the High Court the majority of those seeking divorce were husbands and in the Circuit Court wives only slightly outnumbered husbands in seeking divorces (54 to 46 per cent).
Applications for custody and access in the District Court showed an increase of 27 and 25 per cent respectively, of which the overwhelmingly majority were granted. Only 36 of 957 applications for custody were refused, and 157 of 4,348 applications for access. There were 2,463 applications to the District Court from unmarried applicants for guardianship, of which 81 were refused.
There was a drop in the number of applications related to domestic violence in 2009, down from 10,401 in 2008 to 9,856 in 2009. This continues a trend over the past two years, with the number in 2008 falling from a high of 11,394 the previous year. In 2006 there were 9,924 domestic violence applications in the District Court.
Child care orders were down in 2009. These are care orders and supervision orders made in relation to children at risk, on the application of the HSE. There were 627 care orders and 941 granted, compared 804 care orders and 1,044 supervision orders in 2008.