November 08, 2011: Jamaican Court: Divorce Cases on the Rise

By April Lopez

The Ministry of Justice is moving to make it easier for persons to make that "final" break as Jamaican couples file for divorce.

Read more related articles: Other World Divorce News Knowing Why You Should Stay or Go Reasons 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.

.

Tuesday, May 15
at 8 pm to 8:30 EST
Out With the Tragedy: Turning Divorce into a meaningful experience
with Allison Pescosolido and Andra Brosh, founders of Divorce Detox
Learn More

Listen to podcasts of previous TeleSeminars.