14 DAY TRIAL // For some people, the fact that a divorce means separation and the termination of a marriage may be unclear. One of these people decided to actually sue her former divorce lawyers on the claim that they failed to notify her about the fact that, by finalizing divorce proceedings, she would end her marriage.
A British woman, called Jane Mulcahy, attempted to sue her former representatives for professional negligence and other allegations after allegedly failing to advise her correctly about the finality of her divorce. The case made against two solicitor firms was rejected by court, but was revealed after the woman appealed the dismissal and added claims to her filling.
Mrs. Mulcahy claims that her former lawyers didn't make it clear for her that a divorce leads to a marriage termination. She didn't want her matrimony to be over, she was actually trying to avoid that because of her strong Roman Catholic faith and the fact that it wouldn't be very religious of her to end her marriage.
She accused the lawyers of having no regard towards her faith and of failing to recommend other procedures, like a judicial separation, that would have been an accepted alternative course of action. She argued that since there were other ways to solve her problems without terminating the marriage and the lawyers failed to tell her, they were being negligent and unprofessional.
“The most striking of Mrs. Mulcahy's many allegations of negligence against her solicitors was that, having regard to her Roman Catholic faith, Mrs. Boots [her attorney] had failed to give her advice which was requisite in view of her firmly held belief in the sanctity of marriage,” Lord Justice Briggs says, according to The Independent.
The religious woman claimed that her representatives could have advised her about alternative measures, like judicial separation, and could have made it clear that divorce proceedings would actually end her marriage.
Because of her faith, an alternative measure would have been the best way to solve her issues, but because of misinformation, she ended up breaking the sanctity of marriage and her lawyers must be responsible for that. Her appeal was also dismissed.