Coronavirus lockdown tests couples as divorce queries rise

Marriages have come under severe strain during lockdowns, suggests data available with online legal tech companies, with firms witnessing a huge uptick in queries related to divorce, domestic abuse and other matrimonial matters.

Legal tech startup LegalKart received 9,700 queries related to divorce, domestic abuse and child custody in April and May compared to 3,800 such queries between January and March. The number of these queries spiked to 5,770 in June alone.

According to Arvind Singhatiya, Founder and CEO, LegalKart, 34% of queries around divorce came from Mumbai, followed by Delhi and Bengaluru at 28% and 23% respectively. Around 60-65% queries were by women across cities.

Legal firm LawRato is seeing a similar rise, with matrimonial enquiries now making up 45% of the total 40,000 enquiries that the company gets in a month compared to 30% earlier.

LawRato Founder and CEO Rohan Mahajan said 75% of their enquiries come from the top 10 cities.

Another legal advisor MyAdvo is seeing a 40-50% month-on-month increase in family-related queries since the lockdown. Queries related to divorce, domestic abuse and harassment now contribute to 15-20% of the total monthly queries at the company as compared to 7-10% in the pre-lockdown period.

While divorce has emerged as the category seeing the maximum growth, employment, money-recovery and property issues are the other popular concerns across platforms.

Kushal Bhagat, CEO & Co-Founder MyAdvo, said that 65-70% of queries in India came from Tier-I cities. “In the last four months, major queries have been around family matters, employment matters like wrongful termination, recovery of money, property-related issues and movement passes during the lockdown,” said Bhagat.

Employment-related enquiries are up from 10% to 15% of the total enquiries at LawRato. The number of queries concerning recovery of money jumped nearly five times to 2,179 in April and May compared to 467 cases between January and March at LegalKart.