Economic Cost of Divorce

The overall cost of divorce became more affordable and accessible after 1857, but there is little quantitative data about these costs. We will be examining the costs associated with divorce, including solicitor and barrister costs, court fees, alimony, and support for children, given in many of the J77 Divorce Court petitions generating exciting new empirical data on the legal costs associated with divorce and its relative cost to couples over the period. While the act of a husband claiming damages from a male co-respondent in a divorce case, and culpability for costs will be explored to assess the financial implications of divorce on those involved. The use of in pauperis/poor person’s provision/Legal Aid funding will also be explored to assess the value of the case, the litigant’s occupations and geographical location, to better understand working class access to divorce. This will extend pilot data which suggests that, in addition to the cost of divorce decreasing due to the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, the relative cost of divorce perhaps also decreased over the course of the long 19th century. 

There were also longer-term financial implications to consider, including trusts and settlements, which often dated back multiple generations. These were made conditional on marriage and specifically designed to circumvent coverture and be impervious to future interference. The J77 Divorce Court files therefore represent a unique window through which to view the wealth-management strategies of affluent Victorian and Edwardian families during their lifetimes, rather than the final version that can be observed retrospectively through probate records.