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In New Zealand, to legally end your marriage or civil union (divorce), you must apply to the Family Court for a Dissolution Order. An application for a dissolution order can either be made jointly with your spouse/partner or alone.
Until a final order dissolving a marriage or civil union has taken effect, parties to a marriage or civil union cannot enter into another marriage or civil union.
To apply to the Family Court for a Dissolution Order, the following requirements must be met:
Note that if you and your partner resume living together for a period of less than three months (in total), this will not reset the clock for the two years of living apart.
If you and your partner are currently in family dispute resolution or court proceedings to determine childcare arrangements, this will not prevent you from applying to dissolve your marriage.
New Zealand has a "no fault" regime for divorce. Therefore, the only ground that is needed for an order dissolving a marriage or civil union is that the marriage or civil union has broken down irreconcilably. This ground can only be established if the court is satisfied that the parties to the marriage or civil union have been living apart for at least two years.
Depending on how busy the Court is, a joint application for dissolution could be made within a month of filing the application. For a sole application, you must serve your application on the other party, and they will be given 21 days to file a response if they wish, which can make the process longer. Once the Court grants the order for dissolving your marriage, it does not take effect as a final order until one month later. A dissolution order takes immediate effect when a judge makes an order at a defended hearing, or on a joint application where both parties elect to attend before a judge in person to have a final order made by consent.
As mentioned above, New Zealand has a “no fault” regime. This means if you meet the requirements mentioned above then the Court must grant a dissolution of your marriage. You cannot oppose an application to dissolve your marriage just because you do not want the marriage to be over.
If you have any enquiries relating to this topic or article, or require assistance with dissolving your marriage or civil union, please contact:
DDI: 09 306 6746
Email: pfuscic@mcveaghfleming.co.nz
DDI: 09 959 0615
Email: vkumar@mcveaghfleming.co.nz
DDI: 09 306 6742
Email: nforgie@mcveaghfleming.co.nz
© McVeagh Fleming 2024
This article is published for general information purposes only. Legal content in this article is necessarily of a general nature and should not be relied upon as legal advice. If you require specific legal advice in respect of any legal issue, you should always engage a lawyer to provide that advice.
