Best Family Law Attorneys in Concord, ON

It would be a conflict of interest and contrary to Rules of Professional Conduct for one lawyer to represent both spouses in a separation or divorce case.

If you are successful in court, the judge may award you costs against your spouse. The extent of the cost award will depend on many things, the most important of which usually is whether you made your spouse an offer to settle early on in the process and whether your success in court exceeds what you would have received had your spouse accepted that offer. The extent of the recover can also depend on whether you took any steps in the proceeding that lengthened or complicated matters.

In Canada, you can obtain a divorce under the Divorce Act if there has been a breakdown of the marriage. Section 8(2) of the Divorce Act stated a breakdown of the marriage is established only if:the spouses have lived separate and apart for at least one year immediately prior to the determination of the divorce proceedingthe spouse against whom the divorce proceeding is brought has, since celebration of the marriage:committed adultery, ortreated the other spouse with physical or mental cruelty of such a king as to render intolerable the continued cohabitation of the spouses.

Even if you have met one of the three grounds for divorce, the length of a divorce case will depend on how busy the particular court is and mainly on whether and to what extent you and your spouse have any contested issues still to resolve, such as child custody, access, child support, spousal support, possession of the home, and division of property. In general, the more issues you have to resolve and the farther apart that you and your spouse are in settling the issues, the longer the process will take. In cases with contested issues, the process can take anywhere from a few months to a few years (although you may be able to obtain a Divorce Order even before resolving all issues if you split that issue from the rest call Zeidman Law Offices for further information). If there are no issues to resolve or if you have already reached an agreement on all issues, you can proceed with an uncontested divorce, which usually takes between 2 to 4 months to complete.

If the home is owned jointly by you and your spouse, there are provisions in the Family Law Act and Partition Act that allow you to apply to the court for the home to be sold even before a trial is heard. The court may order the sale even if there is still a dispute about how the proceeds of a possible sale should be divided between the spouses.