The divorce process over the last decade has become more and more simplified and user friendly.

The process is almost entirely based on the Federal Circuit and Family Court filing website, ComCourts.

Broadly speaking, the process to obtain a divorce is as follows:

1. Be separated for a period of at least 12 months;

2. If you have separated for a period of 12 months but have lived in the same house for part of those 12 months, you can still get divorced but you will generally need other evidence that separation occurred whilst under the same roof, such as a statement from a third party.

3. If you temporarily reconciled with your spouse during the 12 months of separation, that could affect the timeline to obtaining a divorce. If it was very brief, for only a few weeks, that is unlikely to affect the application, but if you resided with them for several months, that could cause a delay to the application.

4. After 12 months of separation has occurred, create a draft Application for Divorce on ComCourts and enter your information such as the date of marriage, date of separation, where the marriage occurred, specific dates surrounding separation and reconciling, jurisdictional questions like whether you reside in Australia, are an Australian citizen, etc.

5. Once the application is complete, finalize and print out the draft.

6. Once printed, sign in the presence of an authorized witness, such as a lawyer or a Justice of the Peace.

7. Once signed and witnessed, file online.

8. There will be a filing fee. It changes each year and exceeds $1,000 unless you have some form of concession or if you are experiencing hardship and apply to the Court for a reduction in fees.

9. Once you have filed with the Court, your matter, presuming you have completed all steps correctly to this point, will be listed for a hearing before a Registrar in approximately 2-3 months.

10. Once filed and a court date allocated, you need to serve your former spouse, in most cases by serving them in person by handing the documents to them. You cannot serve them yourself. Service can be simple, but it can also be difficult if you don’t know where your spouse is.

11. Your former spouse has the ability to respond to the Application for Divorce. They can contest the dates, contest that separation occurred, contest that you reconciled, for example.

12. If the divorce is not contested, then in all likelihood, your Application for Divorce will be granted at the hearing and a divorce order sent to you in time. The order takes effect 1 month and 1 day from the hearing.

After the divorce order is made, you are no longer married to your spouse.