Family Law

Divorce

When people ask me about getting a divorce, my first question is if they have children.

That’s because the Canadian Divorce Act requires parents to make reasonable arrangements for their offspring before they can get divorced. This usually means letting the court know who the children will be living with and – this is often a sticking point – who will be paying child support and how much.

If the children will be living with their mother, their father will have to pay child support. The amount is usually set by the Child Support Guidelines, which is a table setting out the amount payable, depending on the number of children and the income of the paying parent. Sometimes, the parties can depart from the Guidelines, but they will have to give the court a good reason as to why they’re doing so, or the court will not grant a divorce.

Another issue is if they are separated. Most often, parties would get a divorce on the grounds that they have been separated for at least a year. That does not mean they have to live in separate homes. It means at least one of them want to live separately.

This is proven by showing that the person – usually both persons – will do their own things, such as going out without the other, sleeping in separate bedrooms, cooking their meals separately, and so on. There is not one single factor that decides if they are separated, rather it is all the facts discussed to see if they are living separate lives.

Other grounds for divorce are if one of the parties has committed adultery or if one of the parties has treated the other abusively. Adultery is a relatively simple matter if there are witnesses. Abuse and cruelty, however, may be more difficult. Even though the parties may be arguing and fighting, that would not be sufficient grounds to get a divorce before being separated for one year.