Midlife Crisis: Support for Left Behind Spouses
Archives => Archived Topics => Topic started by: OnMyJourney on April 21, 2012, 10:01:26 AM
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Can't speak with my lawyer until Monday, so just wondering...
I've heard on the boards that there is an advantage to the person who files first. Can anyone speak to this? I live in Canada.
I'm not thinking of filing but want to be prepared for what may happen.
Thanks
OMJ
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There is no advantage in NY but I have no idea for Canada.
Sorry. Can you google it?
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Hi OMJ
Where in Canada are you? I'm in Ontario and we are a "no fault" province...this could be Canada wide. As such, I don't believe there is any advantage or disadvantage whether you file first. One thing I did find out that I did not know was there is a time limit to how long you have to settle any spousal support/claims, i.e. pension split, and so on - six years after date of separation and one year after date of divorce (although I also understood that a judge would not sign off on a divorce without everything being settled so I'm not quite sure about this). The only things that don't have a time limit for claim is child support and property settlement. Would you be better off financially if you were to file? Do you have a separation agreement in place or is thissomething you are considering? I haven't anything in place at this point. My husband pays the mortgage and taxes and I do know that I would be worse off if we weree to finalize things, so I'm not in any hurry. I would be interested to hear what your lawyer has to say about this. Take care!
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OMJ..I cannot see what the advantage is to filing first except that you get to have some control. I am from Canada but live in the US. I filed first but only because my lawyer's appointment was a couple of days before his..mine is rather a strange situation as he was leaving the country 3 weeks after he announced he did not want to be married to me anymore and we needed to get things settled quickly.
The actual agreement from start to finish did take about 14 months.
I filed for a legal separation and he agreed to that which allowed me to stay on his medical benefit plan but everything else is the same as if we were divorced..oh yeah....neither of us can remarry. Either of us can file for a divorce 6 months after the separation which would be as of May 1.