Benefits of Joint Applications for divorce

Under the Family Law Rules, when applying for an uncontested divorce, you have the option of starting the Application and then serving it on the responding party, or else cooperating with your spouse and filing the Application, jointly, as co-applicants.

The primary benefit of a joint application is that it doesn’t need to be filed at the courthouse in two stages. Otherwise, when the Application is initiated by one party alone, it has to be served on the other side, and then the applicant needs to file it at the courthouse along with proof of service. Since the responding party has 30 days from the date of service in which to contest the divorce, there’s at least a one month delay from the date the Application is issued before the divorce process can proceed to the next step. There can be additional delays if there are difficulties in having the opposing party served with the court materials.

A joint application also avoids the cost of having the responding party served. Depending on where someone lives, personal service costs at least $100.00 per attempt.

Finally, in a joint application, there is an opportunity for both parties to contribute towards the legal fees and court fees associated with obtaining the divorce. Although you can ask for costs in an uncontested divorce, an applicant wouldn’t normally seek costs from the other side unless they decided to contest the divorce.