Technically speaking, you are able to put together all the documents you need without hiring a lawyer. You may pick up a self-help kit at the Queen’s Bench either in St. Paul or in Battleford or even at the local drugstore. You should be warned, though, that completing these documents and properly effecting a divorce is quite a technical process to say the least. There are many forms to be filled out, information to be collected and organized, calculations to be made, official documents to be obtained, documents to be commissioned, and many other “to do’s” which likely will add up to a headache if you aren’t used to completing legal documents. The Court is very particular about the formal requirements to be met for the divorce to be granted. They must be 100% accurate and complete, or they will be rejected. The court clerk will mail back your documents any number of times requesting that you fix every item before they will be approved.
I am quite familiar with these self-help kits, as I often have people coming into my office for a consultation asking me to help them finish off these forms either because they have spent more hours than they had expected trying to figure out what information goes where, or because they have had the court clerk reject their documents so many times that they just want to get it “right” this time. My advice: save yourself the headache, and hire a lawyer to complete your divorce for you. If you and your spouse are in complete agreement on all points, lawyer fees are usually manageable.
Good luck!
Have you tried to complete your divorce yourself? Was it painful or relatively simple? Share your stories with me follow me on Twitter at @sdobsonlawyer and send me a tweet. I want to hear from you!