The couple intended to divorce, but we were still arranging financial agreements for their separation when a clerk accidentally selected them for a final divorce order on an online portal, which saw them legally divorced in just 21 minutes.

The law firm realized the mistake two days after it had occurred, but when it asked a high court to rescind the final divorce order, the request was denied.

The firm insisted that its employee had accidentally selected the couple's file with a simple click, but the judge explained that, in reality, one had to go through multiple screens on the portal to be granted a final order.

Ayesha Vardag, the UK's self-styled "diva of divorce", described the judge's decision as ‘bad', arguing that it allowed a computer to say ‘no, you're divorced'.

"The state should not be divorcing people on the basis of a clerical error," Vardag added.

"There has to be intention on the part of the person divorcing, because the principle of intention underpins the justice of our legal system.

"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 …

"That means that, for now, our law says that you can be divorced by an error made on an online system. And that's just not right, not sensible, not justice." Read more

Does Baidoo's case mean getting divorced is as easy as changing that "Relationship Status" to "Single" and hitting up your spouse on Messenger?

The short, unsatisfying answer: Hardly. Read more

More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to a U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a legal services firm. And over 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys say they've seen a rise in the number of cases using social networking, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. "I see Facebook issues breaking up marriages all the time," says Gary Traystman, a divorce attorney in New London, Conn. Of the 15 cases he handles per year where computer history, texts and emails are admitted as evidence, 60% exclusively involve Facebook.

"Affairs happen with a lightning speed on Facebook," says K. Jason Krafsky, who authored the book "Facebook and Your Marriage" with his wife Kelli. In the real world, he says, office romances and out-of-town trysts can take months or even years to develop. "On Facebook," he says, "they happen in just a few clicks." The social network is different from most social networks or dating sites in that it both re-connects old flames and allows people to "friend" someone they may only met once in passing. "It puts temptation in the path of people who would never in a million years risk having an affair," he says. Facebook declined to comment. Continue reading

Sources

• Smart Money
• Image: Kiwi Commons