Online Divorce Services

A recent report prepared for the Legal Services Board and Legal Services Consumer Panel has found significant benefits in clients seeking legal advice regarding divorce via online Solicitors as opposed to the more traditional high street face to face service.

The report entitled ‘Comparing Methods of Service Delivery: A case study on divorce’ published in March this year investigated the benefits in the emergence and growth of Solicitors offering online divorce services. The report generally found that the developments offered the clients more choice and was a more affordable process. It also found that clients who chose to pursue their divorce using online services noticed the following significant benefits:

Overall the online services were much better value for money usually involving fixed fees as opposed to the old school hourly rate offered by high street practices.

The online experience was found to be far more convenient and less stressful. For example, there being no need for clients to take time off work or rearrange child care arrangements to arrange face to face appointments with Solicitors resulted in a process requiring far less effort on the part of the clients and much faster services.

The report also found that clients using online divorce services tended to have more amicable divorces. For those going through a reasonably amicable and uncomplicated divorce with a high level of agreement about things like finances an online divorce service may well be the better option.

For those who can and want to, online services can empower people to take control of their legal affairs and contribute to improving access to justice, particularly in light of the fact that family legal aid is for the most part no longer available.