Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use your service to obtain a Divorce?    top

• To use our service there must be no disputes with your spouse about
  • the children (custody, access and support)
  • spousal support
  • division of property
  If some of these matters are still in dispute you need to get them settled one way or another before using our service (we recommend using mediation).
  
  Also, to use our service you, or your spouse, must have lived in one Canadian province or territory (except Quebec) for at least the past 12 months and must continue to reside there until your divorce papers are filed with the court. The other spouse can live anywhere in the world, so long as one meets the Canadian resident criteria.
  
  The most commonly used grounds for divorce is separation for one year. This is the only grounds for divorce for which we will prepare documents. (The other grounds are cruelty or adultery but our service does not cover these.)

What do I do with the documents you provide me with?    top

• We will provide you with all the documents and instructions you will need to obtain your divorce. These instructions will deal with filing your documents with the court office, serving your spouse (if necessary), and obtaining your divorce judgment and final divorce certificate. For some further details follow this link for more about how to use our documents to obtain a divorce in Canada.

What are the court's filing fees in my province?    top

• The fees are different for each province and they change from time to time. The fees depend somewhat on certain choices you have. These are approximations based on typical cases. Keep in mind that whether you use our service, hire a lawyer, or try to do it yourself, you will have to pay these additional fees to the court.
  

  British Columbia $311 Alberta $210 Saskatchewan $180 Manitoba $165 Ontario $448

  New Brunswick $117 Nova Scotia $200.09 (Joint) $267.55 (Sole) Prince Edward Island $85 Newfoundland $140 Northwest Territories $200

What if I don't know my spouse's current address?    top

• Normally you need an address so you can serve documents on your spouse. First try searching on www.Canada411.com. If that doesn't work you can hire a process server to find your spouse and serve the documents. If this fails you will need to hire a lawyer to obtain a court order allowing for some form of substituted service (such as serving the documents on another close relative of your spouse).

Can you help me find someone to locate and/or serve my spouse?    top

• Here's a couple of great directories to help you find the help you need:
  Process Servers in Canada
          
  Private Investigators in Canada
  These pages contain links to help you locate and serve your spouse in other countries as well.
  

Will my spouse be contacted, at any time, by your company?    top

• No. Your spouse will know nothing of the divorce documents until you notify them. The only time we would ever contact your spouse is if you specifically asked us to send emails to both of you.

What is a separation agreement?    top

• A separation agreement is a legally binding contract between spouses (married or common-law) or ex-spouses setting out the terms of their relationship after separation. A separation agreement often deals with how property (and debts) will be divided between the spouses, spousal support, child custody, child access and child support.

I want a divorce. Do I need a separation agreement too?    top

• A separation agreement is a requirement if filing for divorce in Nova Scotia using our service.
  
  In all other provinces, we can't advise you about whether you should have a separation agreement - that would be legal advice. However, we can tell you that you can use our service to obtain a divorce without a separation agreement as long as you already have one, or you are content not to deal with the division of property or debts. If you do want to deal with property or debts, then you need a separation agreement too. When you order our divorce document assembly service you are also entitled to receive a comprehensive legal serparation agreement package - a fully editable, do-it-yourself kit with complete instructions in multiple formats (Word, WordPerfect, and RTF) for no extra charge.
  
  If you only want the separation agreement package but not the divorce document assembly service, the charge is $49. You can order the separation agreement package here. Or you can read more details about the separation agreement package here.

Can I get divorced before we decide on how to divide our property?    top

• Yes, but there is a time limit in most provinces for how long you can wait. For example, in Ontario you have to settle the property division within 2 years of your divorce date, 6 years of your separation, and 6 months of your spouse's death. Make sure you don't exceed these time limits before settling the property issues.

Why should I use your service?    top

• There are really just three options open to you if you want a divorce. Option #1 is to use a cheap divorce kit and try to do it yourself. This is fine if you know what you are doing and/or have a great deal of time on your hands. This method is complicated and time-consuming. Most people who try this method end up quitting and opting for one of the other methods. If you agree with the old saying that "time is money", this is the most expensive option.
  
  Option #2 is to hire a lawyer to process it for you. This relieves you of the work, but can be quite costly as lawyers may charge up to several thousand dollars for this service. If you cannot resolve your differences with your spouse, or you are unsure of your legal rights, you should hire a lawyer who can provide you with the legal advice and representation you require.
  
  Option #3 is to use our service. The advantages are that you avoid almost all of the work (and time) in preparing the documents yourself, and you avoid almost all of the cost of hiring a lawyer. Our service is a convenient, affordable, middle ground. For about the cost of one hour with a lawyer we save you literally dozens of hours of work figuring out what documents you need, how to complete them and how to file them. Just print and file the documents we send you according to our instructions. And the best part is that we are always there to support you by answering questions about our service or to make any necessary revisions to your documents.

What customer support do you offer?    top

• We are proud to offer unlimited customer support. By "unlimited" we mean:
  • we will answer all your questions promptly, thoroughly, and courteously.
    
    
  • we will make any revisions you require to your documents as often as you want, for any reason, at no extra charge.
    
    
  • we will help you fix any mistakes you make, not take advantage of them to charge you extra.
    
    
  • we will back up our service with a 100% money-back guarantee.
  Please just keep in mind that we simply cannot provide legal advice. You may ask whatever you like, but please understand that if it crosses into legal advice we will have to say so and suggest that you consult a lawyer in your jurisdiction about it.

What is the difference between a Joint application and a Sole application?    top

• In a joint application you and your spouse both ask the court for the divorce. You both need to sign the papers before one of you (either one) takes them to the court office. There are fewer steps and so a joint application is slightly faster. The only drawback is if one spouse drags his/her feet and does not sign the documents or simply refuses to cooperate.
  
  With a sole application you ask the court for the divorce on your own. Your spouse does not need to sign anything unless there are children involved in which case s/he will still need to submit some financial documents proving his/her income for child support reasons. You will need to arrange for someone to officially deliver ("serve") the divorce documents on your spouse. This is an extra step, takes a little more time, and costs about $50-$75 if you get a professional process server to do it.
  
  So, a joint application is faster and easier so long as both spouses agree to cooperate by signing the forms but a sole application is better if you are unsure that your spouse will cooperate.

How can I pay?    top

• Our order forms allow you to pay using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or even to pay directly from your bank account using Interac's online payment system.

Why do all your forms ask me to enter my email address twice?    top

• Since all documents provided on this site are delivered by email, it is essential that the address you provide is correct. If it is incorrect, we will not be able to provide you with your documents, nor be able to contact you should we need further information. By entering your address twice, it ensures that you haven't accidentally mistyped your email address.

How do I know if my child is still a "child of the marriage"?    top

• The federal government web site provides a pdf guide with information about when a child should be included as a child of the marriage. As it says, in some cases it depends on whether you and your spouse agree to include the child or not. Of course if you cannot agree you can argue it before a judge but remember that we do not prepare documents for cases where there are unresolved issues such as this.

What do you charge?    top

• Our fee is $249 for a complete set of divorce documents professionally prepared based on your specific circumstances and backed by unlimited customer support and a 100% money-back guarantee. We also include our free comprehensive legal separation agreement package upon request.
  
  Our prices are in Canadian dollars and include all applicable taxes. Comparable services offered by US-based companies charge the same fees only in US dollars. By using our Canadian service you will get just as divorced, just as quick and save yourself about 25% of the cost.

How long does this process take?    top

• From the time we receive your order it will take up to two business days for us to prepare and deliver (via email) your documents to you. Our holidays are: New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, the first Monday in August, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. If any of these fall on a weekend, then that Monday will be a holiday.
  
  We encourage you to review your documents and make us aware of any necessary revisions. Then you can either print them yourself or ask us to send them to you via regular mail. Once you have the printed documents in hand you will need to file them at your nearest divorce court office according to our step-by-step instructions.
  
  We suggest you allow 3 - 4 months from the date you file them to the date your divorce will become final. This allows time for the court office to obtain a divorce clearance certificate from Ottawa, time for certain mandatory waiting periods to expire, and time for the court office to actually process your paper work.
  
  Throughout the process, if you have any questions about procedure or need any revisions made, we respond promptly to your email so that we can help keep the time required to finalize your divorce to a minimum.

Can I feel safe sharing my personal information?    top

• There are several other reasons for you to feel confident entrusting us with this information. First, we are members of the Better Business Bureau (BBB). You can check their site for confirmation that we are who we say we are. Maintaining our A+ rating with the BBB is very important to us.
  
  Second, if our credit card payment processor (Paymentech) was receiving complaints they would withdraw their services without which we would be unable to process credit cards. There are only two such credit card processing companies in Canada, the other one being Moneris. We bank with the Scotiabank and it is Paymentech which services Scotiabank's business clients.
  
  Third, you can see on your browser, at the bottom of the page, when you are on our order form page, that the order form resides on a secure site (SSL). If you use Internet Explorer as your browser you will see a little closed padlock symbol in the lower right or top right part of the grey frame. If you are using Firefox as your browser you will see a closed padlock symbol in the grey frame in the lower right, right next to the domain name on which the secure page resides. There are several Trust Guard seals on the page. This is a company which independently verifies that our page is secure, our privacy features are valid, and we are who we say we are.
  
  Also, we can assure you that the testimonials contained on our web site are all legitimate and unsolicited from some of our satisfied customers. DivorceOnline.ca has been in operation since 2003 and our market position is very important to us. We would not jeopardize it by defrauding our customers. We would be out of business in a very short time.

My browser says your page has resources which are insecure. Should I be worried?    top

• If you see a broken lock, or any security warning about insecure resources, it is likely the result of a plugin in your browser, and not our website.
  
  For instance, DivX is known to cause an issue that results in various security warnings in different browsers. This is because the DivX plugin connects to it's own website insecurely each time you load a page. If you have this problem, you can fix it by uninstalling the offending plugin from your browser.