A Get is a Jewish divorce document that dissolves the marriage of a Jewish couple.

When they marry, there is a single ceremony which combines both the Jewish and civil marriage requirements.

Should they divorce, however, two separate divorces are required – the civil one and the Get.

Solicitors need therefore to be prepared to advise Jewish clients about the Get and in particular the Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act 2002, which should be used when one spouse is not cooperating with obtaining the Get, because cooperation between the spouses is the only means whereby the Get can be obtained.

If there is no Get, but only a civil divorce, orthodox Jewish law does not permit the couple to remarry and they remain married for all Jewish purposes.

There must be a Get in addition to the civil divorce for a religious remarriage to take place.

The religious divorce is facilitated by the beth din (court of Jewish law). It is not necessary for the couple to meet each other at the beth din.

The couple agree voluntarily to the Get – this is achieved by the husband granting the Get to the wife (or via an agent) and the wife accepting it.

Critically, if a husband refuses to grant his wife a Get and she then goes on to have children by a different Jewish man, those children are known as ‘mamzerim’.

A mamzer is a Jewish child whose status is religiously illegitimate.

A mamzer will suffer severe and tragic restrictions in later life – a mamzer, together with any descendants, cannot normally marry another Jew or Jewess, so every effort should be made to avoid inflicting this status on a child.

Briefly, this is the position within orthodox or traditional Judaism, to which most Jews in this country belong (by birth).

And now enter the solicitor, having had this brief explanation of the background which enables more effective advice to be given.

The five golden rulesIf these golden rules are followed, success for your client is ensured and serious problems can be averted.

  • The Get can be obtained before the civil proceedings have even begun or while they are ongoing. This can avoid lots of problems and saves the Get from becoming an issue in the civil divorce. This will avoid problems in the future, when it can be more difficult – and sometimes impossible – to obtain the Get. Although the couple cannot have a religious remarriage until the civil divorce has been granted, obtaining the Get first avoids any problems which may arise for your client during the civil divorce process.
  • Contact should be made with the beth din early on in the process. This can be done by either spouse, jointly by the husband and wife, or with the solicitor’s help.
  • If the Get cannot be obtained before, or early on, in the proceedings for the civil divorce, the Get should be built into the negotiations regarding the house, finances, contact with the children and so on. The Get should be mentioned at the outset and then at every stage of the negotiations. If left until later or the end, serious problems may ensue.
  • Most importantly, there is a real need to be aware of the Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act 2002. As is the case with any act, it is a solicitor’s professional duty to know about this piece of legislation and to advise Jewish clients about it. Briefly, if one spouse is not cooperating when it comes to giving or accepting the Get, the other spouse (who wants the Get) can apply to the court for an order for the decree nisi not to be made absolute until such time as the Get has been obtained. It is therefore advisable for the client to apply to the beth din for a Get well before the making of decree nisi in the civil proceedings in order to assess how difficult or otherwise your client’s spouse’s attitude to obtaining the Get is likely to be.
  • There is only a small window of opportunity provided by the legislation when the application under the Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act may be made. It can only be made after decree nisi and before decree absolute. Once decree absolute has been granted, the act may not be used and your client is left stranded with only the civil divorce and no Get, with all the problems that this entails. And of course there is the related problem of the negligence of the solicitor in failing to advise, but of course this was not the purpose for which the law was passed.

Deanna Levine is a dual-qualified Scottish and English solicitor and consultant to Barnett Alexander Conway Ingram in London. She is honorary secretary of the UK Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, an elected ­representative on the Board of Deputies of British Jews and a member of the board’s family law group. She is co-author of the e-book Getting your Get, which explains what solicitors and their clients need to know about the Get process