You have taken the vows where you have pledged to be take your:
" lawful, wedded wife/husband, to have and to
hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in
sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do you part."...
But here you are after the marriage has commenced,
looking for answers on how to terminate the union because it simply isn’t
working out. You may have questions on the way forward. Here are some answers
regarding Divorce proceedings in Jamaica.
Who can get divorced?
• Jamaican
National who is married
• Person
is either domiciled or resides in Jamaica at the date of the commencement of
the proceedings
• Person
is Married for 2 years minimum
• Person
is separated for 1 year minimum
There are essentially three (3) stages for a divorce
• Petition
for Divorce
• Decree
Nisi
• Decree
Absolute
Jamaica has a “No fault” jurisdiction, which means
that one does not have to prove that the other party is at fault or has engaged
in a particular action thus causing the marriage to come to an end. What the
Court is interested in, is that the marriage has “broken down irretrievably”. This
means that the relationship is over, done, finished….and there is no chance
that the husband or wife will sort out their issues and be united again.
It is very important to note that even if one party
does not want to get divorced, they cannot hold this over the head of the other
party and refuse to get divorced. What is important is proof that the
husband/wife was served the divorce papers. This is because a Divorce cannot be
a secret. One party cannot get a Divorce and the other party does not know. It
is a matter of public record and the marital status of a person has legal
implications for both parties.
Many persons are anxious and wish to be divorced
immediately, however a Divorce takes time, and an Attorney-at-Law cannot tell
you exactly how long a Divorce may take, as there are several things that are
out of the hands of the hands of an Attorney:
• The
Registry who receives the filed documents may have amendments which need to be
corrected before the matter may move forward;
• There
may be issues with finding the other party and serving the documents on them;
• There
may be a wait list- in that other persons seeking a Divorce may have filed
before you and you simply have to wait before a Judge signs off on the Divorce
and grants the “Decree Absolute”.
What is clear however is that the earlier you get the
process legally started, means that you are one step ahead in getting the
desired outcome of obtaining a Divorce?
Is it time to get the process started?
