Lamin

Hi,

Can anybody recommend a good lawyer to cover a divorce. Hopefully its quick, straight forward and painless.

Our split is very very amicable, we have divided our assets and have lived apart now for over 4 years.

I have no ideas on the rules or regulations.

Many thanks.

Dorothy

Do you really need a lawyer if things are amicable and you've already split your assets? The Courts of Nova Scotia - Supreme Court Family Division - Home

Do some reading and save yourselves some $$.

HGerchikov

I second this. If it's possible to go without a lawyer then do so. Many years ago I found myself in your situation. Amicable split, sensible division of assets already achieved. We filled out the forms ourselves, it cost a total of £40 for the court time to stamp the docs. This was in the UK, so can't direct you as to what to do in NS but certainly check it out.

dbd33

I'd like to amplify this view. I was divorced after twenty odd years of separation. We thought we were only seeking formalization of an arrangement that had worked for decades. We used lawyers.

We should have done it ourselves and each purchased a Jaguar.

Almost Canadian

Which one of you lives in Halifax at the moment? From recent posts that you have made, it appears that you don't. Unless one of you has resided in Nova Scotia for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of the action, Nova Scotia will not have jurisdiction over the divorce and you will need to determine which jurisdiction does.

If jurisdiction is not an issue, if the two of you have already divided your assets and, if there are no children involved, there should be no reason why lawyers need to be involved.

Lamin

My wife lives in NS and has done for the last 4 years, prior to that it was Calgary, she is a Canadian. I flit back and forth between work, I have citizenship and I will be over next year for good. It's an amicable split, assets divided. There is a child involved and again that is all fair and square, no struggles there.

Almost Canadian

OK. So there should be no need to use lawyers. Just bear in mind that, while you and your wife may have agreed upon what you believe to be a sensible amount of child support, the Court will likely insist upon using the amount of child support set out in the Federal Child Support Guidelines. Here is a link to a website that will enable you to work out how much you should be paying: Child Support Table Look-up

Simply insert your gross income and it will inform you of the amount you should be paying in section 3 child support each month. The Province question relates to the Province that you live in. If you don't live in Canada, the Province that the child lives in is the one to use. If you receive income in any currency other than the Canadian dollar, use the Bank of Canada's conversion table to convert the currency into the Canadian dollar and use that amount, again, gross.

dormy

I did it myself without a lawyer, in NS, my situation was all amicable too. I didn't even go to court for it, just submitted the paperwork and payment, and got my documents mailed to me when it was all done. Totally painless and easy.

Lamin

Would you mind me asking how long it took from start to finish?

dormy

Once the application was in it took about 4 months, it was just waiting for my case to be reviewed and stamped by a judge

sharkus

Amicable split here as well. ex got lawyers to draw up separation agreement, with very basic financial statement as we'd already agreed how things were to be divided up, and how we'd handle custody of our son. I simply had my lawyer look it over and sign.

Ex filed the divorce application a short while ago - we'd agree to split the cost of the lawyer - no contest, so simply replied to the letter I received, and the application was submitted, so it's just waiting for the clearance from Ottawa and then a jude to review and approve.

We could probably have done it ourselves, and foolish as we may be, we preferred to get those who know about this stuff involved, just in case anything quirky came up.