The first working Monday of the New Year has, through the experience of divorce lawyers, come to be known as “divorce day”. This is because, typically, Christmas and New Year tends to bring struggling relationships to an inevitable and irreversible breaking point.

However, divorce day 2021 was always likely to be different to recent years because the lockdowns and associated pressures of 2020 had already resulted in many failing marriages to have ended.

Increased divorce solicitor enquiries in 2020

During 2020, divorce solicitors and family law legal services experienced dramatic surges in divorce work enquiries, with some reporting rises of up to 250% when compared to the same sorts of enquiries in 2019 – the vast majority of these followed the first lockdown.

Of course, the practical challenges presented by lockdown have meant quieter periods for divorce lawyers, but, according to some family law firms, enquiries between lockdowns increased by more than 300%. Even the pre-Christmas period, which, traditionally, is a fallow time for divorce lawyers, was busy, with firms reporting a workload much greater than that experienced in 2019 and subsequent years.

The legacy of lockdown

It is, in a way, one of the many tragedies of the coronavirus health pandemic in that it may have caused the premature ending of many relationships. However, as the word “premature” would suggest, it is not that all of these relationships would have survived – in most cases they almost certainly would have succumbed eventually – only that the pandemic has been a catalyst which may have hastened the irretrievable breakdown. Of course, some might have survived under less pressured conditions, but sadly, we will never know how many.

Interestingly, some couples report using lockdown to work on their relationships, with many couples having more time than ever to talk, to spend quality time together and to address harmful relationship habits. However, when finances are biting, jobs are being lost, and little prospect of an immediate end to these challenges, achieving change is easier said than done.

Perhaps some couples will keep away from divorce lawyers for some time yet, as so many in Britain have pinned their hopes on a brighter 2021, but with the labour market under stress, children frequently kept out of school and a country experiencing the turmoil of Brexit alongside the pandemic, it may be hard to keep hope alive for long. As such, the future of many marriages may depend on the effective and timely rollout of the coronavirus vaccine and the subsequent return to something resembling normal life.