Under the Divorce Act, the primary ground for granting a divorce it that you must have been separated for a period of one year. The process is that one of the spouses, whoever is seeking the divorce, would issue an application seeking only to obtain the divorce, there would be no other claims listed in the application. The application would then be served upon the spouse and that spouse would then have 30 days in which to file an answer. Most people are served with an uncontested divorce, if the only claim is the divorce and they have no objections to the divorce proceeding, will not file an answer. It’s by virtue of not filing an answer that the divorce becomes uncontested after the 30 days of expiration. The person moving forward for the divorce at that time would file an affidavit with the court; no court appearance is required and is all done in what lawyers call over the counter. A judge then considers the affidavit for divorce and will grant the divorce if the requirements of the divorce have been satisfied. The primary requirement, as mentioned earlier, is the one year separation that is fairly easy to satisfy.

Secondly, and sometimes perhaps a little more importantly, the court in now required in granting a divorce to satisfy itself that there are appropriate arrangements in place for the support of any children. If there are dependent children, evidence must be presented to the court at the time that the divorce is requested, satisfying the court that the arrangement in place are appropriate in regards to the federal child support guidelines. If those arrangement are in accordance with the guidelines or can be explained as being appropriate, the judge will then grant the divorce. A divorce order will be issued and will be sent to both parties by the court; the respondent has a 30 day appeal period from the date of the divorce order. If no appeal is filed, the applicant can then request a certificate of divorce which finalizes the process. The process time can vary because if there are issues of service at times when you are filing with the court over the counter, that process is beyond the lawyer’s control. But generally speaking, it can take between two to three months or sometimes a little longer for the process to be completed start to finish.

Should you have any further questions regarding a marriage contract, please feel free to contact us or consult our website for more information.