Divorce and Separation

Our experienced family law team are here to ease the burden of the Court process, ensuring you achieve the closure you seek.

While the process of a divorce application can often be straightforward, the team at Culshaw Miller Lawyers understand the emotional toll of divorce or separation.

Our team will listen and thoroughly discuss your options, guiding you through the necessary requirements for a joint or sole application (which includes the process of serving the other party).

Our goal is to ensure the approach you choose aligns best with your unique circumstances.

We are committed to help you navigate the legal system with certainty and ease for predictable and consistent legal outcomes.

We provide our clients with confidence, through a clear understanding of their legal options and the potential outcomes of their case, which is grounded in our years of experience and a deep understanding of the law.

We provide our clients with a clear understanding of their legal options and the potential outcomes of their case.

Our legal advice is grounded in years of experience and a deep understanding of the law, giving our clients confidence in the guidance we provide.

We are committed to achieving predictable and consistent legal outcomes for our clients, helping them to navigate the legal system with certainty and ease.

We offer our clients the assurance that comes from working with a team of legal professionals who are dedicated to achieving the best possible outcome for their case.

Our commitment to excellence and attention to detail ensures that our clients have the assurance they need to move forward with confidence.

We provide our clients with the assurance that they are in good hands, with a team that is committed to their success and well-being.

Our clients can count on us to be there for them every step of the way, providing dependable and effective legal representation.

We pride ourselves on our reputation for delivering results that our clients can rely on, even in the most complex and challenging legal matters.

We take our responsibility to our clients seriously and work tirelessly to earn their trust and confidence in our abilities.

We understand that legal issues can be emotionally challenging, and we approach each case with empathy and sensitivity.

Our lawyers take the time to listen to our clients’ concerns and needs, and we work collaboratively to develop a legal strategy that takes into account their unique circumstances.

Our clients can rely on us to provide compassionate and supportive legal representation, always with their best interests in mind.

Divorce

For the WA Court to grant a divorce order, it must be convinced of an irreparable breakdown in the marriage.

This is typically evidenced by a 12-month separation period, though there are exceptions.

Additionally, the Court evaluates other factors, such as the arrangements made for any children from the marriage, before finalising the divorce order.

A 12-month separation period is considered to start when these behaviours of living independently are proven to have begun, even if at shared accommodation.

In the event spouses reconcile for a portion of time during separation, this is possible for up to three months, after which the period of 12-months separation will need to begin again, if applying for a divorce.

If this reconciliation lasts less than three months, the separation period halts during the reconciliation period, recommencing if the spouses separate before the end of that third month.

Separation Under One Roof

The law understands that sometimes following a separation, spouses may still need to share the same accommodation and perform some household duties for each other, such as cooking or cleaning where it is necessary for continuing to run the household or for the benefit of others who live there. This is called separation under one roof.

There are a number of factors the Court will consider when determining whether spouses living under the same roof have separated.

This is best described as spouses simply no longer acting as a couple, e.g., no longer attending functions together, going out for meals at restaurants together, sharing a bed, making joint purchases or similar ‘couples’ activities’ such as a night at the movies.

Proving separation under one roof is helped by:

Showing good reason why it was necessary for spouses to continue to share accommodation, such as for the sake of children, or one could not find or afford separate accommodation); and
Spouses intend to live apart in the near future.

Divorce Application

The timeframe between an application for a divorce and the granting of an order will usually take three or four months.

In most cases, divorce is a simple procedure, and most paperwork can be submitted online.

There are Court fees associated with the application.

More complex divorces, such as those where one party contests the matter, or where one party is unable to be located, can require appearances in Court, which takes significantly longer.

The Culshaw Miller divorce lawyers give you confidence in your decision making and assist you in making the divorce process as smooth as possible.