Our Best* Calgary Divorce Lawyers will help you negotiate a settlement that allows for an uncontested divorce with agreed financial and child parenting and guardianship relief. Our modern approach is to negotiate, mediate and arbitrate a fair settlement and failing that we will tenaciously proceed to trial. MacLean Law’s expanded Calgary divorce lawyers office medium to high net worth divorce and family law office in Calgary appreciate that Canada has been a no-fault divorce regime for decades. Almost all divorces now proceed on the basis of a 1-year separation. Spouses who seek to prove fault-based divorce claims may face costs for increasing acrimony. You can obtain an uncontested divorce and work with our Best* Calgary Divorce to settle your financial and child custody issues promptly as well. We can use alternative dispute resolution processes such as the Collaborative Family Law method.
Our experienced and caring Calgary family lawyers can meet with you to help you move forward to a new life free of any bitterness or financial hardships for you and your children.
Call us at 403-444-5503 or meet with us in our downtown Calgary office.
Best* Calgary Divorce Lawyers Explain How The Divorce Act Works
Canada’s Divorce Act contains clauses to permit a divorce to be obtained simply and promptly while ensuring no fraud is involved and while taking all steps to ensure the need for children to be properly supported is protected. No fake separation dates and no sweetheart low ball child support deals will be countenanced.
Our team of Calgary Divorce Lawyers has obtained divorces before the final settlement or trial but only if it does not prejudice a claim or tax planning for our high net worth family law clients. See how divorce before trial or final settlement works.
Here is what our Divorce Act says on divorce with the key parts high lighted for ease of reference:
Divorce
8 (1) A court of competent jurisdiction may, on application by either or both spouses, grant a divorce to the spouse or spouses on the ground that there has been a breakdown of their marriage.
Breakdown of marriage
(2) Breakdown of a marriage is established only if(a) the spouses have lived separate and apart for at least one year immediately preceding the determination of the divorce proceeding and were living separate and apart at the commencement of the proceeding; or
(b) the spouse against whom the divorce proceeding is brought has, since celebration of the marriage,
(i) committed adultery, or
(ii) treated the other spouse with physical or mental cruelty of such a kind as to render intolerable the continued cohabitation of the spouses.
Calculation of period of separation
(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2)(a),(a) spouses shall be deemed to have lived separate and apart for any period during which they lived apart and either of them had the intention to live separate and apart from the other; and
(b) a period during which spouses have lived separate and apart shall not be considered to have been interrupted or terminated
(i) by reason only that either spouse has become incapable of forming or having an intention to continue to live separate and apart or of continuing to live separate and apart of the spouse’s own volition, if it appears to the court that the separation would probably have continued if the spouse had not become so incapable, or
(ii) by reason only that the spouses have resumed cohabitation during a period of, or periods totalling, not more than ninety days with reconciliation as its primary purpose.
Duty of court — reconciliation
10 (1) In a divorce proceeding, it is the duty of the court, before considering the evidence, to satisfy itself that there is no possibility of the reconciliation of the spouses, unless the circumstances of the case are of such a nature that it would clearly not be appropriate to do so.
Duty of court — bars
11 (1) In a divorce proceeding, it is the duty of the court
(a) to satisfy itself that there has been no collusion in relation to the application for a divorce and to dismiss the application if it finds that there was collusion in presenting it;
(b) to satisfy itself that reasonable arrangements have been made for the support of any children of the marriage, having regard to the applicable guidelines, and, if such arrangements have not been made, to stay the granting of the divorce until such arrangements are made; and
(c) where a divorce is sought in circumstances described in paragraph 8(2)(b), to satisfy itself that there has been no condonation or connivance on the part of the spouse bringing the proceeding, and to dismiss the application for a divorce if that spouse has condoned or connived at the act or conduct complained of unless, in the opinion of the court, the public interest would be better served by granting the divorce.
Contact one our Calgary Divorce Lawyers at MacLean Family Law at 403-444-5503 to help negotiate a favourable settlement and an unopposed divorce so you can move forward and spend your hard-earned money on yourself and your children.
