The legal end to a marriage. You have to apply to the court to become divorced – divorce never happens automatically in Canada, no matter how long you are separated from your spouse.
There are basically two types of divorce proceedings – uncontested and contested.
An uncontested divorce occurs when both you and your spouse agree on all of the outstanding issues resulting from your separation and divorce. This means that you have both agreed on absolutely everything - parenting arrangements for your children, child and spousal support issues, and how to divide your property, assets, debts and pensions. When your divorce is uncontested, you will likely never see the inside of a courtroom – you will file paperwork, and your divorce will be processed ‘behind the scenes’ by court staff and a judge. Uncontested divorces include ones filed as a Joint Application for Divorce, an Application for Divorce by Written Agreement, or a Petition for Divorce where the Respondent does not file an Answer to contest.
A contested divorce means that you and your spouse do not agree on some or all of the outstanding issues resulting from your separation and divorce. A contested divorce starts when one party, the ‘Petitioner,’ files a Petition for Divorce, and the other party, the ‘Respondent,’ files an Answer to indicate that they are contesting something that is being asked for by the Petitioner.