The latest divorce statistics available for Australia surprisingly show that the rate of divorce in on the decline and is at its lowest rate since 1988. This is no cause for a major celebration however, as the rate has fallen from a peak of 54,000 in 2001 to 47,000 in 2007. With those numbers, there is still plenty of work for any family law divorce lawyer to do, with thousands of couples each year still needing help and advice, once they have made the decision that their marriage is irretrievable. Professional legal advice is especially important if the separation is acrimonious resulting in the couple being unable to make rational joint decisions.
Many people may be surprised to know that the legal process of divorce under Australian Family Law is simply to officially acknowledge that the marriage has ended. It does not deal with issues around the division of property or child custody arrangements. However, depending on the circumstances it can be a complex process that should be handled by an expert in family law Sydney.
The start of the process is for the Court to prove that, firstly that the marriage is valid, usually evidenced by sighting a Certificate of Marriage. If the marriage certificate is in a language other than English, a sworn translation must be provided to the Court. If there is no marriage certificate, the Court may request some other evidence of the existence of a marriage.
Next the Court must establish jurisdiction as it only has the power to grant a divorce if one of the parties considers Australia to be home, intends to live here indefinitely, has lived here all their life, is an Australian citizen or usually lives in Australia, and was living here in the twelve months prior to the application for divorce. The Court must also establish that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. If the couple has been separated for twelve months prior to the application, a declaration by the applicant is sufficient evidence for the Court to make that decision.
The application form is filed in triplicate and one copy returned to the applicant by the Court. A hearing will usually be scheduled approximately within eight weeks. Once the Court is satisfied that the respondent is aware of the application and the hearing date, a decree nisi will generally be granted. The divorce is finalised when a decree absolute is granted, generally one month and one day after the decree nisi is granted. The Court will then issue a certificate of divorce by post.
If everything goes smoothly and all the required documentation is available, it will take approximately 12-13 weeks from filing the application to granting the divorce. However, often there are issues with the documentation, questions about jurisdiction, language barriers and other problems that require the expertise of family lawyers Sydney.
Even simple legal processes can become complicated when things don’t fall into place as expected. When the divorce is handled by a family law divorce lawyer, any surprises or issues are dealt with quickly, so that the client can get on with their lives.
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