What happens in Vegas … doesn’t always stay in Vegas!

A few years ago, a lovely young man contacted me in a bit of a bind.  He was engaged to the girl of his dreams and planning a big wedding.  Only problem was that he had already gotten married in Vegas to a friend of his a few years prior!

He called me to find out if the Vegas marriage was valid – since they were drunk and never lived together afterwards – because he really didn’t want to have to break the news to his fiancé that he was already “kinda” married.

After asking him a few questions and establishing that he did in fact get legally married in Vegas, it became clear that the hard reality was that his marriage to his friend in Vegas was considered a valid marriage in Canada.  I wish I could have told the young man something different, but – whether or not it is Elvis, the captain of a ship, or a person who was ordained over the internet – if they are qualified to perform marriages in the location you are getting married in …. You. Are. Married.

Some countries require the marriage to be registered in their jurisdiction in order for the marriage to be recognized in their jurisdiction.  Canada is not one of these jurisdictions.  A marriage is recognized as long as you meet the requirements of the jurisdiction in which you got married … and unfortunately dumb and drunk are not bars to marriage in Vegas … or so I’ve been told.

Because he had married his friend but never lived with her (or consummated the marriage according to him) our unfortunate friend would have been able to have the marriage annulled if he had made an application within a small window of time.  However it had been well over two years by the time he contacted us, so annulment was not an option.

In these situations, we can complete a quick divorce for you, provided you have a marriage certificate and you can still locate your “spouse”.  These types of divorces are usually uncontested and called “desk order divorces” because everything is done by filing paperwork as opposed to appearing in court.

If you have a divorce where there are no outstanding issues other than getting a divorce, you can obtain one of these divorces.  The process takes about 3 – 6 months and we usually charge a flat fee for them based on whether or not there are children of the relationship.  If you find yourself in a situation like the one I mentioned above, or just want to finalize your divorce and there are no other issues to deal with – call us to discuss how we can help you obtain a desk order divorce.

Oh … and one more thing … after you get one of these divorces … you are really divorced too.  So if you plan on remarrying – you need to disclose this divorce on your next  application for a marriage licence.

Paule Seeger B.A. LLB

Summer time travel with your kids – Make sure you have consent!

Well everyone summer is officially upon us! Kids are out of school and free from their usual routines and many of us are taking to the sky’s and roads for some much needed vacation time!

If you and your ex are sharing custody it’s time to make sure that you have your summer parenting time schedule in place and any consents to travel signed and ready to go. Customs officers are putting heavy importance on making sure that children aren’t entering and leaving the country without the consent of both parents these days. The last thing you would want is your family vacation to be spoiled by such an avoidable circumstance!

Paule Seeger B.A. LLB

How social media effects you and your case.

Ok everybody listen up!

We all use social media so much today that we forget that it is written documentation.  We send texts indiscriminately, we update our FB pages without considering who is seeing them, we send our boyfriends or girlfriends compromising photos of ourselves and we still seem to believe that all of this is private.  Guess what? It’s really, really isn’t!

I can’t count how many family files I have that have reams of text messages between the two warring parties. Things said in anger or in jest are raised from the dead and entered as evidence of a person’s bad parenting / anger and general bad attitude.  We need to be more cognizant, especially when dealing with an estranged spouse that these texts can AND WILL be used against us.  So think twice before drunk texting – stick to good old fashioned drunk dialing, at least those conversations are still somewhat private.

I have also seen situations where one party swears up and down that little “Johnny” wasn’t driving in their car without a seatbelt / driving on a quad bike that wasn’t age appropriate, or doing other activities that are unsafe – only to then see many pictures pulled from their FB page of little “Johnny” doing exactly that!  Now the client has double trouble – little “Johnny” is obviously engaging in unsafe activities which is bad enough, but now the client is also categorically lying ….

And the proof is there in the photos!!

So the next time the client swears up and down about something, what is the likelihood that he (or she) will be trusted? Slim to none unfortunately.  So save all those photos for your personal use or do a giant upload much, much later when your family law file is a distant memory.

Finally, remember the naughty photo sent in the early stages of a new relationship when we feel loved up and all sexy?  Remember, those photos don’t always end up where they should end up.  The last thing you want is a naughty photo of yourself or your new partner being entered into evidence to attack your credibility in a situation where the relationship possibly started earlier than you want to admit to.

The basic rule is “don’t do something that you wouldn’t want the world knowing about”, but since we are all human and therefore do things we aren’t always proud of – don’t post them, talk about them or send them via social media.

It’s called social because LOTS of people have access to it!!

Paule Seeger, B.A. LLB