Divorce Lawyer Surrey

The central legal concepts with respect to divorce and separation are found in the Divorce Act and the Family Law Act. The Divorce Act is a federal statute which applies to every province within Canada, whereas the Family Law Act is a provincial legislation. This means each province has its own variation of the legislation.

The Divorce Act outlines issues such as jurisdiction, grounds for divorce, child support, spousal support and custody orders. Procedural matters on these issues are governed by each province. In British Columbia, these procedural rules can be found in the Supreme Court Family Rules. There are 3 grounds for seeking a divorce based on the breakdown of the marriage:

• the parties are separated and have been separated for at least one (1) year;
• the other spouse has, since the celebration of the marriage, committed adultery; and
• the other spouse has, since the celebration of the marriage, treated the spouse with physical or mental cruelty of such a kind as to render intolerable the continued cohabitation process.