Kawartha Lakes Contested Divorce Lawyer

A contested divorce can place an enormous amount of strain on you and your family. Disagreements over the division of assets, child custody, or even the divorce itself can stretch the process over many months and affect every part of your life.

A Kawartha Lakes contested divorce lawyer from The Riley Divorce & Family Law Firm could help you manage and control contested issues that threaten to derail a smooth dissolution of your marriage. With 24-hour availability, our divorce lawyers take the time to listen to your concerns, propose reasonable alternatives to lengthy divorce trials, or, if necessary, litigate your case in court.

How Can a Divorce Lawyer Help Resolve Contested Matters?

Our Kawartha Lakes lawyers approach every contested divorce case by respecting your situation while focusing on identifying whether emotions or objective concerns are driving decisions. For disputes over asset division, for example, what our lawyers can do includes:

• Preparing detailed inventories of all assets that a final asset division order will address
• Establishing mechanisms to handle divisions of assets that parties may have omitted from their inventories
• Setting expectations and boundaries that could guide negotiations and reduce the likelihood of a loss of focus over property matters
• Helping to segregate large or high-value assets from smaller, low-value items, which enables a more rational approach to asset division

A critical component of this process is preparing and maintaining written or photographic records of assets, including the histories of when you acquired them and the extent to which each of the divorcing spouses contributed to those acquisitions.

What Alternatives Are Available to Resolve Contested Divorces?

The Canadian Department of Justice estimates that approximately 20% of spouses contest their divorce. Our Kawartha Lakes lawyers work to find the best alternative to resolving contests at trial, particularly when the divorce involves child custody issues. Our strategies include:

• Scheduling negotiations and goals for defined issues, with budgets that eliminate unexpected expenses and other surprises
• Adopting a strategic approach to negotiations with a clear understanding of what the best alternative to a negotiated agreement might be
• Limiting direct communications between divorcing spouses and verifying that you document all communications in writing with no loose ends or ambiguities
• Referring disagreements to a neutral mediator or arbitrator approved by both parties for an impartial approach to workable parenting time, decision-making responsibility plans, and child support payments

Contested divorces often get lost in minor issues without addressing the futures that both parties see as their preferred endpoints. Our lawyers focus on moving forward toward those futures.

Call Our Kawartha Lakes Lawyers to Discuss Your Contested Divorce

At The Riley Divorce & Family Law Firm, our lawyers represent couples of all lifestyles, including executives and high-net-worth individuals, with divorce and family matters throughout Greater Toronto and other areas in Ontario. We develop alternatives and solutions in contested divorce cases that are as unique as the clients we represent. 

Our personalized, client-centric approach serves your best interests when disputes threaten to complicate your marriage dissolution. We are available 24 hours a day, so call now to speak with a Kawartha Lakes contested divorce lawyer.