No Court Divorce
At Resolution Place we offer a flat rate fee of $2000 to get your divorce order including all legal fees, court fees and taxes. About 50% of marriages in Canada today do not involve matrimony. These are the so called common law marriages. When a marriage ends, whether there has been matrimony or not, the legal issues need to be resolved by Separation Agreement.
Once the Separation Agreement has been signed, those who have had matrimony may want to undo their commitment. We call that divorce.
In Canada, either spouse may apply to court for an order for divorce without having to go into a courtroom. However, if there are children of the marriage, a no court order for divorce will be granted only if the issue of child support is settled first by way of written agreement.
If you have not yet settled the issues relating to your children, you are not ready to apply for a no court divorce. You can resolve the outstanding legal issues about children and property division through mediation, arbitration or collaborative law. Once you have a formal Separation Agreement, you are ready to start a no court divorce.
The signed Separation Agreement is usually submitted to the court with the application for a desk order for divorce to show the court that there are no outstanding legal issues between the parties related to children of the marriage.
To apply for a divorce in British Columbia, it is not necessary that you were married in British Columbia. You can be married anywhere in the world and still be entitled to apply for a divorce in British Columbia but only if you have resided in British Columbia for at least the past 12 months. The other spouse can live anywhere in the world, so long as one spouse meets the British Columbia resident criteria.
The most commonly used grounds for divorce is separation for one year. A spouse can commence a divorce application immediately after ceasing to reside as a spouse with the other party, but the request for a final order for divorce cannot be made until one year has passed since the date of separation.
There are other grounds for divorce available under the Divorce Act (Canada), such as mental cruelty and adultery. However, if you apply for a divorce on these grounds, you will or your lawyer will likely have to make a court appearance to prove the allegation. This could get expensive. Therefore, an over-the-counter desk order for divorce will not be available in a divorce application made on grounds other than a one year separation.
To start the no court divorce process please contact andrea@resolutionplace.ca and ask that a No Court Divorce Retainer Agreement be emailed to you, or Contact Us.
Contact Us
Contact us to make an appointment for your initial consultation with Susan Kurtz, an experienced lawyer at Resolution Place.