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The divorce process in England and Wales has, until recently, been administered exclusively via physical paperwork that needed to be sent directly to court. Now, though, it’s possible for the relevant documentation to be completed and submitted online – something which has left a few people feeling more than a little annoyed.

Traditionalists – in what is now firmly established as their default response when anyone proposes any kind of change to divorce law, the divorce process or pretty much anything divorce-related – have claimed that this will make the process of obtaining a divorce too easy. This, they claim, will bring about a tidal wave of divorces as if, we can only presume, that all married couples would divorce if it didn’t require a stamp or a trip to the nearest post-box.

The reality, of course, is that the greatest procedural barriers are still in place following this change: there is still a court fee of £550, couples must still apportion blame if they’ve been living separately for less than two years and there are still numerous forms to complete. These are just a few examples of the far larger problems faced by those looking to divorce their spouse than merely being unable to submit paperwork online.

As ever, I will make the same statement I have made previously when groups have argued that simplifying the divorce process will result in the breakdown of far more marriages: no one will decide to pursue a divorce exclusively as a result of a procedural change.

Indeed, changes to the divorce process or divorce law will never be what lead people to conclude their marriage has irretrievably broken down. They may file because changes make it more practical for them to do so, but there can be little doubt that they will have concluded that their marriages were not sustainable beforehand.

What’s more, it must be stated that whilst opponents of changes to divorce law and procedure appear to be under the impressions that legislators can make the task of ending a marriage easy, this is fallacy. Divorce is always difficult for those involved, particularly children of the marriage. When the formal process itself is unnecessarily complicated, it’s far more likely that those involved will become frustrated, thus worsening the negative effects it’ll have on not only them, but their extended family – and therefore children – also.

Once again, the criticisms levelled at changes to the divorce process serve as proof of the fact that those that detract such alterations are actually opposed to divorce itself, as their baseless reasons for opposing them prove.