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The effects of the UK’s fault-based divorce system is set to be scrutinised via a two-year study, it has been revealed.

The study, which is to be funded by the Nuffield Foundation and conducted by family law organisation Resolution, has been commissioned in order to assess whether fault-based divorce petitions promote acrimony between otherwise civil parties and if the removal of fault based grounds could nullify this.

Research will be conducted via three distinct means: a survey into the public’s attitude, a critique of how the courts review divorce petitions and determine if the grounds of adultery or unreasonable behaviour are acceptable, and an analysis of how divorce petitions are produced and what affect, if any, this has on the parties involved.

The aforementioned survey will be used to glean how people feel about divorce law as it currently stands in the UK – as well as determine their appetite for these laws to be revised – by reviewing the responses of 3,000 adults, 1,000 of whom will have recently divorced.

The second stage of the study will see researchers conduct a case file analysis of 400 divorces (300 uncontested and 100 contested) as well as interview legal advisers and judges located in various divorce centres located throughout the UK.

The third stage of the study will involve both solicitors that are members of Resolution as well as their clients. Here, researchers will attempt to determine how the parties are affected by the manner in which their divorce petitions are prepared as well as the advice that they receive from legal professionals. In order to do this, qualitative reviews of approximately 75 separate cases will be conducted throughout the course of one year. Results of the study are expected in late 2016.