Uncontested Divorce in Ontario
When your divorce is uncontested the process can move very fast.
The decisions you make early in the divorce process and the route you take can make the difference of tens of thousands of dollars
To move from a contested to an uncontested divorce, use mediation.
Uncontested divorce often means that the process will be less expensive and much quicker.
If you choose uncontested divorce, expect a bloodbath
Avoid the Red Ocean
What is an uncontested divorce in Ontario?
An uncontested divorce will not require the couple to appear in court. The couple can file a joint divorce application by the court, signed by both of them. The cooperative nature of this divorce often means that the process will be less expensive and much quicker. It is common for the major points of the divorce to be settled out of court, with the court largely adopting the separation agreement as its judgment.
A contested divorce, on the other hand, occurs when the parties cannot agree on the terms of the divorce. In this type of divorce, the parties have significant differences on major issues, necessitating an involved intervention by the court. Contested divorces have a tendency to become bitter and expensive due to the costs associated with each party’s proof of their case.
Couples involved in a contested divorce are more likely to proceed by way of a simple divorce application or divorce with other reliefs. The case will most likely involve the calling of expert witnesses and professionals on both sides, and a lengthy court proceeding.
To move from a contested to an uncontested divorce, the following methods can be used to get the two parties to see eye-to-eye:
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- Collaborative law
Your Ontario divorce lawyer will be able to help you work through these options and attempt to find common ground. If none of these techniques work, the next step is to take your issues through the formal court process.
How much is an uncontested divorce in Ontario?
Will that be a “contested divorce” or “uncontested divorce”? A contested divorce means you and your spouse have a few issues to iron out, maybe around such things as ongoing parenting, child or spousal support, financial disclosure, property equalization or division, or how to deal with the matrimonial home.
If you are outcome-focused and it’s a cost-effective divorce you want, that depends on the dispute resolution process you choose to work out your differences.
Read on and I will layout your options.
Your marriage has broken, you are thinking of starting a divorce process, the decisions you make early in the divorce process and the route you take can make the difference of tens of thousands of dollars and months or even years of delay. Here I will explain your separation and divorce options and how you can cut your cost, ease your stress, save your time, safeguard your children, and preserve your retirement in separation and divorce. In other words, the difference between a Blue Ocean or Red Ocean Divorce.
What’s a Uncontested Divorce?
The Soft Landing Divorce Settlement Method at Divorce the Smartway is a blue ocean divorce. It’s a separation during which you and your spouse choose legal education and legal advice and not a court case. You work with a neutral third party who can help you reach agreement on all kinds of issues:
- Support payments
- Property Division
- Co- Parenting time with the children (child custody)
- Equitable distribution.
As the name suggests, it’s a far less stressful process than choosing the adversarial lawyer-driven, bloody Red Ocean Divorce.
Why we call it a Blue Ocean Divorce?
Untainted by lawyers intent on muddying the waters and stirring up conflict, a Blue Ocean Divorce is so-called because it takes a purer, more calm approach to divorce. It is a separation in which compromise, healing and understanding are of primary importance, and where many of the costs, injustices, dramas and trauma of divorce are swept away on the ocean current.
What Happens During An Uncontested Divorce?
The goal is always to keep fights and conflicts out of the equation, so the process is less confrontational and stressful, and leads to a more equitable distribution of assets and responsibilities. It’s a divorce that will help you get your financial situation in order to minimize legal and other fees, so you can move forward with your separation more easily. It’s a non-acrimonious, pro-collaborative process that will save you time and money and help you and your spouse enjoy a better relationship as you go your separate ways.
What Outcomes Can You Expect From An Uncontested Divorce??
This type of divorce focuses on letting you and your spouse work out the nature of your separation with expert guidance from a neutral third party. That means if you have children affected, you can develop solutions that are in their best interests. You can avoid future conflicts by reaching agreements together, and you can do it all without the huge legal fees and hassles associated with a Red Ocean Divorce. All a Blue Ocean Divorce requires is for you and your spouse to be prepared to sit down and discuss matters and work things out between yourselves in the presence of a mediator who can help guide you to a mutually agreeable solution.
Should I get a lawyer for an uncontested divorce?
Many courts allow, and some actually insist that couples attend mediation to amicably solve their divorce disagreements. This requires both spouses to attend a meeting with a mediator who will help them talk through their issues and come to an agreement. These mediators are highly trained in handling potentially high conflict situations. They remain neutral throughout, siding with neither party, but helping ensure mediation sessions remain productive, respectful and focused on resolving areas of disagreement.
What is Contested Divorce in Ontario
Stay out of the Red Ocean
What is a Contested divorce?
It’s an apt way to describe the traditional two-lawyer divorce proceedings, you versus me in a court case, adversarial divorce process to legally end your marriage.
Why we call it a Red Ocean Divorce?
Because the aggressive, win at all costs adversarial family law tactics that are used by lawyers during these divorces usually result in bloodbaths. Relationships get ruined. Bank accounts get massive chunks ripped out of them by greedy lawyers. People’s emotions take a battering.
What Happens During a Contested Divorce?
To sum it up, it’s a toxic tide of dirty tricks that’s designed to create conflict, fear, and fees for lawyers. The first area of bad behaviour involves a lack of co-operation between both sides. Each spouse’s lawyer will take a passive-aggressive stance and employ underhand tactics in an effort to try and score points over the other and gain a perceived advantage.
And each lawyer will be taking chunks out of your family finances. You can expect your lawyer to charge $350 an hour and ask for a $10,000 retainer (which you’ll need to top-up when they say it’s run out). You can also expect to be charged 15 minutes of billable time for your lawyer to read a short email that would take the rest of us a couple of minutes.
In short, it’s a shipwreck for the separating. A race to the bottom of an ocean that will leave you drowning in debt and at the mercy of a series of ‘experts’, who will all be charging you fees of their own, and may even be required to give evidence and testimonies. These people include people with jobs you’ve most probably never heard of:
- Business Evaluators
- Custody And Access Assessors
- Children’s Lawyers
- Pensions Evaluators
- Public Accountants
- Investigators
- Career And Vocation Evaluators
Conclusion
If you choose to apply for a divorce in the red ocean, expect a bloodbath for you, and a feast for your lawyers. On average, you can expect to spend 134% more during your adversarial, lawyer-based divorce than couples who choose a Blue Ocean Divorce.
Dive head-first into the shark-infested waters of a Red Ocean Divorce, and you can’t expect to come out unscathed. Instead, you should expect to come out bitter and broken, your relationships in tatters, your finances drained and your children damaged.
Are you having trouble reaching an agreement on your finances? Do you want to avoid going before the judge and asking for help? Consider working with a family mediator who can help you end your marriage in a way that is peaceful, cost-effective, and child-focused.
Would you like to learn more? Get in touch for a Get Acquainted Call to learn more about finding a separation agreement with a soft landing.
Hear what a Ontario Family Court Judges has to say
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Uncontested divorce?
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Who can use Naked Divorce Filer?
Naked Divorce Filer is for you if you and your spouse:
- DON’T have any child custody issues
- DON’T have any child or spousal support problems
- DON’T have any issues over debt or property to resolve
Have both you and your spouse agreed to get a divorce?
If so, please use The Joint Divorce Application.
If just one of you wants to get divorced…
Please use The Simple Divorce Application.
Each application comes with
Each application comes with its own instructions, information, and documents required to:
- Finalize your divorce application
- Serve your divorce application on your spouse
- File your divorce application with the Court
Why divorce lawyers don’t want you knowing about Naked Divorce Filer
A lawyer will typically charge you and your spouse $2,500 for an uncontested divorce. Naked Divorce Filer costs just $599 + HST.
Why the huge price difference?
It’s all down to the legal profession being stuck in the dark ages and failing to use modern technology to drive down costs.
Let’s use banking as an example. 30 years ago, people had to rush to banks on their lunch breaks, queue up with their paycheck and passbook and wait for a teller to take the cheque and deposit it into their account. Then they had to grab some cash to pay for gas and groceries to last the week. Nowadays, it’s amazing how banking technology has revolutionized our lives.
But where’s family law?
Still stuck in that queue 30 years ago.
Lawyers start every divorce application from scratch:
NO time and money-saving online systems.
NO leveraging technology.
SO they charge you $2,500 because they can’t be bothered to modernize.
Would you pay that sort of money for a tax return? NO WAY! Thankfully, you don’t need to because the tax industry has solved many of the complexities surrounding personal income taxes by using technology. Shame the legal profession hasn’t followed suit.
So while lawyers remain technophobes, you can bypass their services with Naked Divorce Filer. It uses technology to reduce the cost of applying for a simple, uncontested divorce.
Pay a lawyer $2500 or use Naked Divorce Filer for $599 + HST? You decide.
About Naked Divorce Filer
Here at Divorce the Smartway, we wanted a smart, simple and cost-effective way for people to get a divorce application without paying ridiculously high legal fees.
The technology exists to make the process hassle-free, and Naked Divorce Filer uses the best of it. Once you’ve completed our online questionnaire, one of our team will get to work preparing your divorce application documents to ensure your application is legally compliant and error-free.
Always a personal touch
Yes, Naked Divorce Filer is an online questionnaire. But our team will always be here to help if you need it at any stage during the process. You will be assigned a document specialist you are free to call or email anytime.
Hi, my name is Ken Maynard.
I am a family court survivor, Family Mediator and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA). For 10 years now I have been helping separating couples find their Soft Landing. I look forward to working you.
647.360.3200
Next Step - Schedule a Get Acquainted Call
I help smart and successful couples, create separation agreements with clarity and soft landings for secure futures, in 4 meetings or less without all the lawyer created overwhelming conflicts, confusion and costs. You can work with me by video conference or with a DTSW associate at any of our 6 DTSW Greater Toronto mediation centers, including | Aurora | Barrie | North York | Vaughan | Mississauga | Scarborough.
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