NB: Some steps do not apply to other cases because each case is unique.

A couple has one year to complete all the steps leading up to a divorce trial. They can ask the judge to extend this deadline in special circumstances.

• Motion to Start Divorce Procedure: This is the request for a divorce that cancan be written either by a spouse or a lawyer acting for the spouse.
• Appearance: The spouse who receives a motion to start divorce proceedings must appear. This means officially notifying the other spouse and the court of an intention to do something in the divorce case.
• Timetable: On the day the motion to start the divorce procedure is presented in court, the spouses have to make a list of the things to be done before the divorce trial and the deadline for each spouse to do these things. This is officially called a timetable.
• Defence: If the spouse who receives the motion to start the divorce procedure does not agree with some of the things it says, he or she can write about this disagreement in a formal document. This document is called a “defence”. This spouse can also ask the court for certain things, such as support payments. These requests are called a cross demand.
• Answer: A spouse who receives a defence and cross demand and does not agree with some things they say can reply in writing. This is called an answer.
• Inscription and Other Documents: When the divorce file is complete, the spouse who asked for the divorce, or the spouse who filed a cross demand, must notify the court in writing and ask for a trial date. This is called inscription.

• Declaration of Complete File: Each spouse must provide certain information to the other spouse and to the court in a document called a declaration of complete file. This declaration tells the other spouse what to expect at trial and confirms that the case is ready to be heard by a judge.
• Declaration of Inscription on the Roll: This document repeats much of what the spouses said in their declaration of complete file.
• A statement or form about the family patrimony: This statement would say that the spouses are not covered by the rules on family patrimony, that they have given up the right to a division of the family patrimony, or that the division is not challenged. If none of these three possibilies applies, the couple must file a form called a Calculating Statement of Family Patrimony.
• A form called a Calculating Statement of Partnership of Acquests: This form calculates the value of the partnership of acquests before it is divided between the spouses.
• Form II – Attestation in Respect of the Registration of Births: This document is necessary in divorce proceedings. It can be prepared at any time between the motion to start the divorce procedure and the inscription.

• Motion for a Safeguard Order and Provisional Measures: This is a request to get a court decision on questions that cannot wait until the trial, such as child custody or child support.
• Affidavit: This is a statement in writing that can be used to respond to the other spouse’s motion for a safeguard order and provisional measures or to an affidavit given as a reply.