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Those hearings were a waste of time and (mostly public) money. It was a wise move to apply the special procedure to all undefined divorce. And people argued about money and children just as much as they ever have done; a brief hearing of an undefended divorce in an empty courtroom before a bored judge hearing the same answers to the same questions time and again did not provide much by way of catharsis.

Let's do the job properly. Divorce should be administrative: you file the document asking for it with the Registrar of Births, Marriages, Deaths and Divorces, a copy goes to your spouse, and three months later you get your order unless you withdraw it. No nisi, no absolute, no defence.

Financial claims to be made within a brief period of the order; unextendable unless you could not trace the spouse and got leave (and this would have to involve the court) to proceed without service.