What if the Court rejects my Application for Consent Orders?

If you have not lodged all the necessary documents with the Court, then you will generally receive an email from the Court shortly after lodging the Application for Consent Orders to notify you of the problem. You will then get the opportunity to fix the problem by lodging the missing documents before the Court reviews it.

If the Registrar reviews your Application for Consent Orders and decides that the documents have not been completed correctly, then you will be given an opportunity to make changes to your Application for Consent Orders and to resubmit it for review again.

Review the Requisition Letter from the Registrar. This will outlines exactly why the orders were not approved and what needs to be fixed.

Fix drafting errors if the rejection was due to unclear, vague, or legally ineffective wording in your Minute of Consent Orders, then you must redraft them to be precise and enforceable.

If you have not recorded all information correctly in the Application for Consent Orders, or if the Minutes of Consent Orders are poorly worded, inadequate or do not end the financial relationship between you and your former partner.

Similarly, the Registrar will reject your Application for Consent Orders if the overall percentage division is not just and equitable. This means that the the agreement you reached with your former partner is too favorable to you or to them. In this case, you may be requested to submit an Affidavit to give more information, or your will be given an opportunity to make changes to your Application for Consent Orders and to resubmit it for review again.

If you resubmit an updated Application for Consent Orders, then you will be required to strikeout the old parts of the agreement and write below each strikeout the new information. This can end up looking like a dog's breakfast and be more work than starting from scratch.

Therefore, it may be more simple to void your rejected Application for Consent Orders, request a refund of the Court Filing fee that you paid upon lodging the Application, and then submit a new Application for Consent Orders with the updated agreement and correctly completed documents.

If you do not wish to renegotiate the property settlement agreement reached with your former partner, then you should void your Application for Consent Orders, and instead, enter into a Financial Agreement to end the financial relationship with your partner.

A Financial Agreement is not reviewed by the Court, and you do not need to satisfy a Registrar that your agreement is just and equitable. Instead, there is a legal requirement that you and your former partner receive independent legal advice about the good and the bad of the Financial Agreement before you sign it.