After searching for your divorce lawyer and arranging a meeting with him/ her, you may be wondering what to bring on your first visit to the divorce law firm.
There are 2 stages to the divorce proceedings.
In the first stage, the Court will grant an Interim Judgment if the Court finds that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. In the second stage, the Court focuses on ancillary issues including custody of children, division of matrimonial assets and maintenance.
The documents that you need to bring should be helpful to the Court in the 2 stages of divorce.
For Uncontested Divorce
For an uncontested divorce (with all terms agreed), you should just need to bring personal documents to the divorce law firm. These include:
1. Your marriage certificate.
2. Your children’s birth certificates.
3. Parties’ NRICs/ passports and deed poll (if any one has gone through a change of name previously).
These documents are relevant for the preparation of the Statement of Claim, which contains the particulars of parties and their children.
Your lawyer will prepare the Statement of Particulars which will contain details of the breakdown of the marriage and the duration of the marriage. Your divorce lawyer will also need the following information of both parties:
1. Date of birth.
2. Religion.
3. Occupation.
4. Address.
5. Marital status prior to the marriage.
6. Place of birth and citizenship.
For Contested Divorce
In the event that your divorce is contested, you may have to bring to the divorce law firm evidence to show that your marriage has broken down irretrievably. The facts to show that your marriage has broken down irretrievably are as follows:
1. Unreasonable behaviour of your spouse: your spouse has behaved in a manner that you cannot be expected to continue living with him/ her.
2. Adultery of your spouse: your spouse has committed adultery and you find it intolerable to continue living with him/ her.
3. Desertion: your spouse has deserted you for a minimum period of 2 years with the intention to desert you.
4. Separation: you have been separated for a minimum period of 4 years.
Different evidence may be required for different cases. It is on a case-by-case basis. For instance, if your spouse has committed adultery, you may bring with you the private investigator’s report to the divorce law firm.
If you are alleging that your spouse has behaved unreasonably by sending you threatening text messages, you may bring along copies of such text messages. If you are alleging physical abuse by your spouse, you may bring along copies of medical and police reports.
In relation to the issue of maintenance (including for child maintenance), you may bring along copies of the following documents to the divorce law firm.
1. List of expenses of yourself and the children and supporting receipts of such expenses.
2. Other documents relevant to the issue of maintenance include: payslips, CPF statements, IRAS statements, employment letter and bank statements.
In relation to the issue of division of matrimonial assets, you may bring along copies of documents including:
1. Supporting documents showing your financial contributions to the matrimonial home/ other matrimonial properties, including CPF statements, bank statements and renovation receipts.
2. Valuation reports of matrimonial properties, if you have them.
3. Insurance policies as insurance are also deemed to be matrimonial assets.
4. Housing loan statements.
All documents that you bring to the divorce law firm are confidential. You should consult your divorce lawyer to check if there are other documents that he/ she requires.
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