THE REQUIREMENTS FOR OBTAINING YOUR DIVORCE

1. Simple Divorce - You must be requesting at this time only the simple dissolution of the marriage itself (and not asking the court to make any other order, such as with regards to property, support and/or matters regarding children).

Note: For a simple divorce there is no requirement of the government's mandatory information sessions; those sessions only apply where you are asking the court to deal with other issues, as above.

Click here if you would like to obtain only your divorce now, but still have other issues.

2. Grounds for Divorce - They are "one-year-separation" or "adultery " or "cruelty". The most common is the one-year-separation ground. You don't have to wait for the whole year to be up to start.

Click here if you would like a further explanation of any of these grounds or about "annulments".

3. Ontario Residency - One of the spouses must presently live, and have lived in the Province of Ontario for the last full one-year period.

4. Ability for Your Spouse to be Served - You must have your spouse's co-operation, or failing that, at least his or her present address - so that we can serve him or her with the required documents.

5. Marriage Document - We will need either your original marriage document or a government-certified copy of it. It may be called a "Marriage Certificate" or "Record of Marriage" or a "Copy of an Extract of a Marriage Registration" or another name depending where it was issued. We do not need it in order to start the divorce proceeding but we will need it within about 6 weeks later. Translation - If your marriage document is in a language other than English or French we will need a certified translation.

Click here to order a copy of your marriage certificate if you were married in Ontario.

Click here for a very inexpensive translation service.

6. Applicable Child Support Obligations Met - You must be paying any child support that is legally payable by you, and in accordance with the Federal Child Support Incomes tables for us to help you with your divorce.

Click here to check the tables "Federal Child Support Tables".

7. No previous divorce proceeding still pending - It is your responsibility to make sure that no previous, abandoned divorce proceedings are still pending. The court will not entertain two divorce proceedings at one time for the same parties.

8. Other Documents - If you had been previously divorced prior to this marriage, and if your present marriage took place outside of Canada, the court may require that you submit a copy of the previous divorce document. (The previous divorce document would not be required to start your divorce, but should be submitted within about six weeks to order to avoid any delay.)

Click here for a more detailed explanation of any of the above requirements.