A couple who were wrongly divorced by a firm headed by a "diva" following a computer error by staff cannot be "re-married", a senior judge has ruled.
The couple, identified as Mr and Mrs Williams in court, were amicably in the process of splitting their assets in 2023.
However, family law firm Vardags - led by self-proclaimed “diva of divorce” Ayesha Vardag - used an online portal to mistakenly apply for a final order for the couple.
The separation was accidentally finalised in just 21 minutes.
A couple who were wrongly divorced by a firm headed by a "diva" following a computer error by staff cannot be "re-married", a senior judge has ruled
Getty/ Vardags
A senior judge has refused to overturn it despite agreements not being settled.
Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane said the lawyers intended to apply for a divorce for another client "but inadvertently opened the electronic case file in ‘Williams v Williams’ and proceeded to apply for a final order in that case".
The firm said its staff were still learning the new online divorce registration system in October last year.
He said solicitors at Vardags, who were representing the wife, used the online portal "without the instruction or authority of their client".
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Within three days, the error was noticed when the company applied to the High Court to retract the final divorce order.
McFarlane rejected Mrs Williams' application to have the decision overturned.
He said: "There is a strong public policy interest in respecting the certainty and finality that flows from a final divorce order and maintaining the status quo that it has established."
He added that it was necessary to correct the assumption that the online divorce portal would "deliver a final order of divorce where one was not wanted simply by ‘the click of a wrong button’."
Family law firm Vardags - led by self-proclaimed “diva of divorce” Ayesha Vardag - used an online portal to mistakenly apply for a final order for the couple
Vardags
Vardag said the ruling was a "bad decision" because "the state can’t be divorcing people just because of an online clerical error".
"There has to be intention on the part of the person divorcing, because the principle of intention underpins the justice of our legal system," she told The Sun.
"When a mistake is brought to a court’s attention, and everyone accepts that a mistake has been made, it obviously has to be undone. We’ve heard from the court staff that this happens a fair bit with the new online system.
"And it should just have been fixed as usual. But here the husband inexplicably took issue and the judge decided, effectively, ‘the computer says no, you’re divorced’."
