The reform of divorce by mutual consent

On October 12, 2016, the reform of divorce by mutual consent was definitively passed and will come into force on January 1, 2017.

To date, no implementing text has been promulgated, but the law on justice of the XNUMXst century has already drawn the broad outlines.

Article 50 of the law specifies that “ the spouses can mutually consent to their divorce by deed under private signature countersigned by lawyers, deposited in the rank of the minutes of a notary ».

Exit the JAF. From now on, a private deed, two lawyers and a notary will suffice to divorce amicably in 15 days.

Exit the JAF? Not so sure, because it seems that two types of amicable divorce will henceforth have vocation to cohabit, the procedure of divorce by mutual consent with and without a judge.

Indeed, many voices were raised so that couples with children could not benefit from this “diversionary” procedure. The legislator preferred the “middle way” by maintaining the intervention of the judge if the child asked to be heard. This assumes that the current procedure will still be applied after January 1, 2017!

Thus, more than a fundamental reform, we are witnessing the creation of an express divorce route leading directly to court officials to unclog the courts. This is a laudable intention (for the JAF) when we know that 54% of divorces are carried out by mutual consent (of which 99% of agreements would be approved from the first hearing), it remains to be observed whether the trust placed by the spouses in their lawyers will have the same scope as that granted to the office of the judge to safeguard their interests.

There is no doubt that in order to satisfy this degree of confidence, the lawyers will use their weapons to start interminable negotiations which, seen from behind the scenes, will not be amicable.