Family and Child Law: Ending the Marriage

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Ending the marriage.
In order for Gilbert to be able to end the marriage the courts have to believe that his marriage has been irretrievably broken down and nothing else can be done to fix it. Gilbert can file for divorce based on the ‘unreasonable behaviour’ ground against his wife. Veronica’s decision to not work full time anymore can make things incredibly challenging for Gilbert and the fact that she isn’t willing to compromise or even consider any other options. As well as the fact that she took on an extra art course, which obviously costs money. This is extra money that she cannot afford that Gilbert will have to cover for or contribute towards. She also does.t want Lulu to spend more time but carry on going to the nursery 4 days a week, even though she is at home as she has more time and will be more available to take care of Lulu. Gilbert suggested this as he has started to notice that it was going to be more expensive for him to cover Lulu’s nursery fees as well as the mortgage and hose bills etc. This could be seen as unreasonable behaviour as it could be argued that she behaved in such a way that Gilbert cannot be reasonably be expected to live with her. According to the case of Owens v Owens [2018], there is a three-stage enquiry for determining unreasonable behaviour and they are: first, determining what the respondent did or did not do by reference to the allegations of behaviour in the petition. (factual). The second is assessing the effect of the behaviour on this particular petitioner in all of the circumstances. (subjective). The third is evaluating whether as a result of the first and second, it would be unreasonable to expect the petitioner to continue to live with the respondent. (objective). This can also be applied to Gilbert and Veronica’s situation, as veronica’s behaviour is definitely considered unreasonable by Gilbert as any type of behaviour can be considered unreasonable so that is the fact of the situation. The effects of Veronica’s behaviour on Gilbert are lot and it is clearly making Gilbert’s life harder and if it was to carry on eventually, he would start to struggle financially as he’s the one making most of the money and Veronica makes less than him and does not contribute towards the household expenses. And evaluating these two points it would be unreasonable to expect Gilbert to continue to live with her.
On the other hand, it could be argued that Veronica’s dismissive behaviour is due to the way Gilbert speaks to her or treats her. It was mentioned that he called her ‘Lazy’ in a heated argument and it seems he always disagrees with her choices regarding everything. Meaning that it could be argued that Gilbert can’t file for divorce based on unreasonable behaviour as it could be seen that he is what causes Veronica to act ‘unreasonably’.
It was mentioned that the couple separated two weeks ago, meaning that’s they sleep in different rooms but they continued to live in the same house and have meals together as a family. According to s.2(6) Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the definition of separation is when the couple are living apart in differ...