By John T. Syrtash, Associate, Garfin Zeidenberg LLP, a Toronto family law lawyer for the past 39 years.
Be careful about merely using do it yourself divorce kits or
paying uninsured paralegals who are not lawyers.
You might pay less initially, but without informed legal
advice doing it yourself could lead to
much more expensive problems. Let me
give just two examples. If you are owed money for property division because of marriage,
you could lose that right within the earlier two years after divorce or six
years after the date you separated from your spouse if you don’t claim before
the Courts during that time period.
So, If you obtain an uncontested divorce without settling
your property claims, you could allow the two years to drift by after the
divorce and then find out that you’re
prevented from making a claim for money to which you are entitled.
Similarly, you cannot obtain an “uncontested divorce”
if you have a dependant child and you fail to provide the Court with an
affidavit that recites the amount of child support paid by the non-custodial
parent and prove the amount that the
other parent earns yearly. You don’t necessarily need a separation agreement to
complete such an affidavit. But then again, they said the Titanic didn’t need
‘so many’ lifeboats The cost of a
separation agreement is a whole different matter ( at least $2500 plus HST for
a very simple “no brainer.”)
John Syrtash is an associate and family law lawyer with the Toronto firm of GARFIN ZEIDENBERG LLP.
John T. Syrtash B.A. (Hon.) LL. background:
Invited Speaker on Bill 78, Proposed Changes to Canada’s
Divorce Act, House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (November
26, 2018)
Editor of the Syrtash Family Law Newsletter, Lexis Nexis
President of the Syrtash Spousal Support Database
Author of Religion and Culture in Canadian Family Law, Butterworths
Author A Calendar of Northern Fables, Amazon
Neither GARFIN ZEIDENBERG LLP nor John Syrtash is liable for any consequences arising from anyone’s reliance on this material, presented as general information and not as a legal opinion.
John T. Syrtash,
Associate
GARFIN ZEIDENBERG LLP
Yonge-Norton Centre
5255 Yonge Street, Suite 800
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2N 6P4
Cell: (416) 886-0359
Fax: (416) 512-9992
email: [email protected]