If you have attended Court for the divorce hearing and the Registrar has granted your divorce it does not become final until one calendar month and one day after your hearing.  After this date you will be issued with a decree stating that your divorce is final.

An Enduring Guardian appointment allows you to nominate one or more persons to make medical and lifestyle decisions such as where you live, what services are provided to you at home and what medical treatment you receive when you lose capacity to make these decisions for yourself.

Whilst you may never need to use this document, it may provide peace of mind to know that someone you trust will be able to make these decisions for you.

An Enduring Power of attorney is a legal document that allows you to nominate a person or persons to act on your behalf in relation to legal and financial matters such as the sale of a property, operation of bank accounts and other financial aspects when you are unable to manage these on your own.

The short answer is yes – you do. Why you may ask. A will is a plan for what happens to your assets and possessions after you die.  You can also nominate a guardian for any minor children. If you do not have a valid will then these may be divided according to legislation and the decision about where children live made by a Court.

You should look to update your will on a regular basis and certainly when you marry, divorce, death of your spouse or beneficiary, birth of any child(ren), incapacity of an executor or a significant change in assets.

Sole Applications

When there are children under eighteen then the Applicant must attend the divorce hearing, but if there are no children and all other requirements of service have been met then you do not need to attend.  The Respondent does not need to attend but can attend if they wish unless they have filed a response stating that they do not wish to be divorced.  In this case they need to attend in person.

Joint Applications

If you and your former spouse have jointly applied for divorce, then neither of you are required to attend even if there are children under eighteen.

I have attended the divorce hearing – am I divorced now?

If you have attended Court for the divorce hearing and the Registrar has granted your divorce it does not become final until one calendar month and one day after your hearing.  After this date you be issued with a decree nisi stating that your divorce is final.

To apply for divorce, you need a copy of your original marriage certificate, and not the one that they gave you at the church but the one from births, deaths and marriages.  If you don’t have this you can just head to www.service.nsw.gov.au and apply for a copy to be sent to you.

If your marriage certificate is not in English (because you were married overseas), you must have it translated into English by an authorised translating service. The translator will prepare an affidavit which will need filed with your marriage certificate.

If you were born overseas, you will need your citizenship certificate or visa paperwork which shows you are living legally in Australia and have lived here continuously for a period of more than 12 months.

We will also take a copy of your driver’s licence.

You can still apply for a divorce provided you have been separated for a period of 12 months however you may also need to provide a counselling certificate.

You can still apply for a divorce if you have been living separately under one roof for a period of not less than 12 months however you will need to provide additional evidence to support your divorce application

The parties should have been separated for a period of 12 months.  This means that if you separated for a bit and then reconciled then the time starts from after the final separation.  There must also be no reasonable likelihood that you will resume your marriage, this is called separation on a final basis.

No two asset pools are the same, so specific advice from a legal professional is paramount however we generally start with a four-step process.

First, we identify the asset pool by looking at the assets, liabilities and superannuation of the parties of the relationship. Next, we look at contributions of the parties. Such contributions are usually classified as being financial (such as being the primary breadwinner or gifts and inheritances), non-financial (such as skilled labour improvements to the family home) or as homemaker and parent.

The third step is consideration of the future needs of the parties. Whilst the final step seeks to ensure that any settlement between the parties is just and equitable.