Do-it-yourself deals on divorce planned

COUPLES will soon have to decide themselves who gets their property before they file for divorce, a report said yesterday.

The new ruling, said to be the first of its kind in the world, is intended to spare families the emotional pain and legal costs of fighting over their homes after they are divorced.

"Some of the most bitter divorces are fought in court because of million-dollar homes," a lawyer told the Straits Times.

Chief Justice Yong Pung How, who announced the new ruling, said the court might soon also order divorcing couples with children to take parenting courses.

"The family justice system and process . . . must bring order and certainty and stability," he told the paper yesterday.

The legal system is also looking at ways to make it easier for parents over 60 to claim support money from their children, the paper said.

The chief justice also emphasised the need for a hi-tech approach to improving the system.

"A first class judiciary should lose no time in upgrading its business and trial adjudication models and its human resources to deliver justice in the new digital environment," he said.

Computers would be used more frequently in courts and parties would soon be able to take part in small claims tribunals via video links, The Straits Times said.

Officials were also considering the possibility of offering counselling and mediation services to the public on the Internet.

 Published in the South China Morning Post. April 6, 1998