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Last week, a woman attempted to sue a solicitor for negligence. This may not seem particularly unusual or newsworthy – such actions are fairly commonplace, of course – until you consider why the claimant took this action: her solicitor failed to advise her that a divorce would end her marriage. The claimant, Jane Mulcahy, argued that her representatives failed to take her Roman Catholic faith into account and should have recommended that she pursue judicial separation rather than a divorce as the latter would have legally ended her marriage to her husband; which Mulcahy claims she did not want. Whilst the case was thrown out, it does provide an opportune moment to inform people of just how judicial separation differs from divorce and why an individual may file for it. The most obvious difference between divorce and judicial separation is simply that, whilst a judicial separation will, following it having been granted, result in spouses losing many of the rights afforded to a married couple such as those relating to inheritance, they remain legally married. The process of obtaining a judicial separation is virtually identical to that which must be followed when filing for a divorce, so the person applying must complete and submit a D8 form. When completing this form, however, it will be stated that the applicant is applying for judicial separation rather than a divorce. The fees that are payable to the courts when filing such a request currently stand at £365, though, as with all other applications, an individual is entitled to either have these reduced or waived completely under certain circumstances. The process is identical to that used when filing for a divorce, the only exception being that the courts will not grant a Decree Absolute (a document confirming that the divorce is final) following the application having been approved, but a decree of judicial separation instead. Fewer applications for judicial separation are made these days, but they are still utilised by individuals who do not wish to divorce their spouses for ideological reasons such as their religious beliefs or by couples who are unable to file for a divorce because they have not yet been married for the one year period required before the courts will be able to consider such an application. Either party can apply for a divorce even after they have obtained a judicial separation, however, though many couples will obtain this order as it allows them to either finalise an agreed division of assets by filing a consent order or request that the court hold proceedings in order to determine how assets – such as property, savings, valuable possessions etc. – are to be divided if the parties are unable to reach an agreement, without needing to file for a divorce beforehand. The only exception to this is pension sharing which the courts are unable to order unless the couple have applied to end their marriage. Judicial separations are quite rare, but as discussed above, are a viable alternative to divorce when a couple do not wish to end their marriage, have not yet been married for one year or have not been living separately for more than two years and are unable to obtain a divorce on the grounds of adultery or unreasonable behaviour.