The B.C. government has opened access to an online divorce assistant to speed up uncontested divorces going through B.C. Supreme Court.
Joint-filed divorces are those where both applicants agree on all family law issues such as child support and division of property. In the first stage of the online filing option, cases that don’t involve children are being accepted.
Cases involving children are to be added in the coming months. In a future phase, the B.C. justice ministry plans to extend it to online filing for protection orders for spouses or children.
The B.C. justice ministry says province handles nearly 10,000 divorces a year, with 30 per cent filed jointly. The online filing system is designed to streamline the complicated paperwork with a step-by-step website, to eliminate filing errors that can result in multiple trips to the court registry.
The assistant is designed to work with a tablet or larger screen, but can be used on a smartphone. Users complete their application and print out the documents for filing at the court registry.
