Home to about 21,581 people (2021 Census). We work online across Ontario — you do not need to come to an office.
Our family law work starts at $1,693.87, taxes included, published up front on our pricing page. Disbursements and any government fees are extra and billed at cost.
Scugog sits in Durham, and family matters for Scugog residents are heard at the Durham courthouse — the Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Sharpe, DSO, MP Courthouse.
Ontario runs family matters through two different arrangements, and which one applies depends on where you live. In some areas the Family Court — a branch of the Superior Court of Justice — hears the entire file: divorce, property, parenting, support and child protection together. Elsewhere the work is split, with the Ontario Court of Justice hearing parenting, support, protection and adoption while divorce and property division go to the Superior Court. Which arrangement covers Scugog decides whether your matter sits in one court or two, and it is the first thing we confirm when we open a file — before anything is filed anywhere.
Scugog is a lower-tier municipality within Durham, and court jurisdiction in Ontario follows those boundaries rather than city limits — which is why the answer above is about Durham, not about Scugog on its own.
You are not alone in this. Residents of Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Uxbridge and Whitby are heard at the same court, because all of them sit inside Durham. There are 8 municipalities in Durham in total.
The Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Sharpe, DSO, MP Courthouse handles family matters, Superior Court civil filings, Small Claims Court, Divisional Court appeals, enforcement of orders, a Crown Attorney's office and the Victim/Witness Assistance Program. It is not in Scugog, so an in-person step means travelling to Oshawa — one reason we run as much of a file as possible online.
The Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Sharpe, DSO, MP Courthouse is not a family-only building. Per the Ministry of the Attorney General's court directory it handles civil claims, youth criminal matters, criminal matters, a Crown Attorney's office, Divisional Court sittings, an enforcement office, family matters, Small Claims Court and a Victim/Witness Assistance Programme office. That matters practically: the counter you deal with, the filing hours and the other business going through the same registry are shared with those other streams.
Scugog does not have its own courthouse for this work. The venue is in Oshawa, which serves Durham. Plan for the travel: attendances, and any filing that has to be done in person, happen there rather than locally. Most of what we do on a file is handled remotely and does not require you to attend at all.
Court venue confirmed against the Ministry of the Attorney General court directory (listing), 2026-08-09.
Scugog is a township and a lower-tier municipality within Durham, with a 2021 census population of 21,581 living in 8,243 occupied private dwellings — an average household of 2.62 people.
That household figure is not trivia in a family file. Equalization of net family property turns on what the household owns and owes on the valuation date, and the matrimonial home is usually the largest single number in it. A 2.62-person average household tells you the shape of the housing most separations here are dividing.
Of Scugog's 8,734 private dwellings, 491 (5.6%) were not occupied by a usual resident at the 2021 census. Where a separating couple owns a second or seasonal property, it is a separate asset in the equalization and needs its own valuation.
Population and dwelling counts: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (source), retrieved 2026-07-28. Averages are computed from those counts.
Most separations in Scugog never see the inside of the Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Sharpe, DSO, MP Courthouse. They are settled by a written separation agreement — parenting, support and property dealt with by negotiation, sometimes with a mediator. Court is what you use when agreement is not possible, or when you need an order only a judge can make.
That matters for cost. A negotiated agreement is a fixed, knowable piece of work. A contested court file is not, because its length depends on the other side. We quote the first as a fixed scope and are honest with you about when a matter has moved beyond it.
Two deadlines catch people out. A married spouse's claim to equalization of property is time-limited, and the one-year separation ground for divorce must be complete when the divorce is decided — not when the application is filed, so you can start before the year is up. Neither depends on where in Durham you live, but both are easier to miss when nobody has told you they exist.
If children are involved, the language changed: Ontario and the federal Divorce Act now speak of decision-making responsibility and parenting time rather than custody and access. Older agreements and older advice still use the old words, which causes confusion in Scugog as everywhere else.
Divorce and property division are heard by the Superior Court of Justice. The Ontario Court of Justice handles parenting, support, child protection and adoption but cannot grant a divorce. For Scugog, family matters are dealt with through Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Sharpe, DSO, MP Courthouse.
No. Most separations in Ontario are settled by a written separation agreement negotiated between the parties, often with mediation. Court is for matters that cannot be agreed, or where an order is needed.
It varies with court volume. The one-year separation ground under the Divorce Act must be complete when the divorce is decided, not when the application is filed — so a spouse can start before the year is up.
Generally no for a separation agreement. Each spouse should have independent legal advice, and an agreement is much harder to challenge later when both parties had it.
Yes. We are an Ontario firm and work online across the province, so you do not need to be near an office to open a file.
Government sources for this topic. Rules change — confirm the current position before you rely on it.
Open your Scugog file online in minutes — a licensed Ontario lawyer reviews it before a dollar is owed.