DadTalk

Judge launches campaign to promote marriage.

Sir Paul Coleridge has called on people to re-think the "re-cycling" attitude to relationships which he believes has damaging consequences for the children caught up in the heartbreak.

His call to "mend it - don't end it" came on the day that divorce lawyers are expected to receive the highest number of inquiries as people reassess their lives after spending time with family during the holidays.

Sir Paul, 62, who has been married for almost 40 years and has three children, said: "My focus is on the children. I am unashamedly advocating marriage as the gold standard for couples where children are involved."

Sir Paul told The Times that his profession has made its fortune from marital breakdown and "it is now time to put something in".

Lisa Macdonald, a solicitor specialising in divorce, matrimonial and family law, said that in January last year she had about 26 new clients, while for the rest of the year she had between 11 and 15 new clients every month.

The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the number of divorces in England and Wales in 2010 was 119,589, an increase of 4.9 per cent since 2009, when there were 113,949 divorces.

In 1970, 22 per cent of marriages ended in divorce before the 15th wedding anniversary, whereas 33 per cent of marriages in 1995 had ended after the same period.

Sir Paul will take comfort from the fact that there are couples who are still willing to make their marriage work, as counselling service Relate has said that January is also a hectic month.

A spokeswoman for Relate said: "This is our busiest time of year. There's always a huge spike in calls in January. We find that people take stock after the Christmas break because maybe they've had a rough Christmas."

In January last year, Relate reported a 20 per cent increase in calls and a 66 per cent increase in visits to its live chat facility.

Read more about this story at The Telegraph Website.