What is left to do once the divorce is final?

Keep the certificate, and know what it proves

Once the 31-day period has passed, request the Certificate of Divorce if you have not already. It is the document that proves the marriage ended, and it is what a new marriage licence application, a passport office or a bank will typically want to see, not the original court judgment. Keep both, but expect the certificate to do the practical work.

If you plan to remarry, confirm the certificate is in hand first — the divorce is not final, and remarriage is not lawful, until the 31 days have passed without a successful appeal.

Filing and enforcing support

If support terms have not already been filed, a separation agreement's support provisions can be filed with the court under section 35 of the Family Law Act, and a court order's support terms can be registered with the Family Responsibility Office directly. Once registered, the office collects from the payor and pays the recipient, and can pursue garnishment, licence suspension or credit reporting for arrears.

Filing is optional where both of you are paying and receiving support directly without issue, but it removes the burden of chasing a missed payment yourself if that ever becomes a problem.

We file the support terms with the court or the Family Responsibility Office for you, so enforcement is already in place before a payment is ever missed.

Updating your own documents

A divorce does not automatically update a will, a beneficiary designation on a life insurance policy or an RRSP, or a power of attorney naming your former spouse — although the Succession Law Reform Act treats some gifts to a former spouse in an existing will as revoked once a divorce is final, it does not rewrite the will for you or address every document. Review and update your will, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney and any joint accounts or debts that should now be separated.

Government-issued identification and records — health card, driver's licence, passport — can also need updating if you are changing your name, which is a separate process from the divorce itself.

What can still be changed later

Child support, spousal support and parenting terms are not necessarily final simply because the divorce is. A court can vary a support order, or a filed agreement's support terms, where there has been a material change in circumstances since it was made — a significant change in income, a child's needs, or a change in the parenting schedule, for example.

Property terms, whether an equalization payment or a separation agreement's division of assets, are generally meant to be final and are much harder to reopen, absent the specific grounds in section 56(4) of the Family Law Act for non-disclosure or a lack of understanding at the time.

If the other side stops complying

Support arrears go to the Family Responsibility Office if the terms are registered with it; parenting terms that are not being followed can be enforced through a motion to change or, in serious cases, a contempt motion. Keep records of missed time or missed payments as they happen — a pattern is far more persuasive than a single incident raised much later.

None of this requires restarting the whole case. Enforcement and variation are narrower proceedings aimed at the specific term that is not working, not a re-litigation of everything that was already decided.