A district court in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province is requiring divorce-seeking couples to take a few months and think it over.
Couples who file for divorce in the city's Shizhong district will be ordered a mandatory "cooling-off period" of three months, Kankan News reported.
The buffer period does not seek to limit rights to divorce, but rather provide a period to withdraw the claim, explained Men Hongke, the court's vice president. The move also aims to address a recent spike in the number of divorces.
"Over the last year, we granted 300 divorces. That is pretty high," said Li Jiang, chief judge of the Shizhong District People's Court.
"Compared to five years ago, divorce cases have increased by 70 percent," Li added.
Similar policies have been put in place. In 2016, a number of courts were selected by the Supreme People's Court to pilot "cool down" orders for divorcing couples of up to six months.
