The Truth About Separation and Divorce in Ontario That No One Tells You!

The Truth About Separation and Divorce in Ontario That No One Tells You!

It’s really important to understand certain fundamental facts about your separation or divorce that are rarely explained or clearly spelled out to spouses getting separated or divorced!

Hi, my name is Thomas O’Malley.  I’m an experienced family lawyer in Durham Region and the GTA.

Unfortunately, many spouses have certain ideas and beliefs about their separation or divorce that simply are not true and can seriously hurt their family law case.

Here are some fundamental facts you need to know about your separation or divorce in Ontario:

1.   Your friends and family members rarely give you accurate advice about your  separation or divorce.

When you’re getting separated or divorced, you will inevitably speak to your friends and family members about your situation. 

They will give a lot of advice and tell you what happened in their separation or divorce.  They do this since they are well meaning and certainly want to help you deal with your separation or divorce.

However, your friends and family members only end up giving you partially-correct advice and half-truths!

When you don’t fully understand your family law rights and how they apply to your particular situation, you can easily spend months and months and thousands of dollars fighting for thing you simply will not get.

You need to have a detailed conversation with an experienced Ontario family lawyer about your legal rights and how they apply to specific situation. 

Here’s the key point:  ask you family lawyer about your chances to get a certain result that you would like to achieve in your situation.  You can save yourself so much frustration, heartache and money by finding out the answer to this question.

Ask your family lawyer to explain why or why not you cannot obtain a certain goal in your separation or divorce. 

Then you should follow your family lawyer’s advice on these key issues. 

2.  Your separation or divorce will take longer that you expect.

For some mysterious reason, many spouses believe that their separation or divorce will get done quickly and easily.

I believe that it is emotions driving spouses who just want to get their separation or divorce done quickly so that they can move on with their lives.

However, the process takes much longer than spouses realize.

As a practical matter, you need to be separated from your spouse for a year or longer to get a divorce in Canada.

You should have a separation agreement negotiated with your former spouse before you start court paperwork for a divorce so that you can avoid a court battle about the divorce-related issues of child custody, access, parenting time, child support, spousal support and the property issues.

It usually takes 4 or 5 months simply to negotiate a separation agreement.

If you have to go to family court, you will easily spend a year or more in court to settle your legal issues or go to trial for final orders on your outstanding family law issues.

I discuss some more real facts about getting separated or divorced in Ontario in another video.

If you have any questions about your separation, divorce or family law case and you would like our help, there’s a few ways to contact our office. 

You can leave a message on my Facebook law office page, visit my website at www.canadiandivorcelegaladvice.com, or call me directly at 905-434-8837. 

We would be happy to speak to you.

Oh, by the way, did you know you can protect your family law rights and get essential information on settling your family law issues with your former spouse with the daily indispensable family law advice and tips at my FREE Facebook group? 

Click here to find out more: Durham Region Separation and Divorce Legal Support Group  

Thanks for watching this video.