Table 4
Divorce and other family breakdown court cases, by time since initiation, 2009/2010

Table 4
Divorce and other family breakdown court cases, by time since initiation, 2009/2010
Type of court case1 Time since initiation Total
1 year or less greater than 1 year to 2 years greater than 2 years to 3 years greater than 3 years to 4 years greater than 4 years Unknown
number
With no issues involving children identified – total 58,478 26,859 7,284 4,125 11,023 196 107,965
Divorce 50,127 23,259 5,948 3,471 9,266 184 92,255
Other family breakdown2 8,351 3,600 1,336 654 1,757 12 15,710
With issues involving children identified – total3 49,374 31,331 11,890 6,363 14,808 84 113,850
Divorce 4,869 5,661 3,330 2,067 3,414 30 19,371
Access 210 163 78 56 184 1 692
Access and custody 468 391 157 86 147 1 1,250
Access and custody and support4 2,323 3,092 1,913 1,179 1,615 19 10,141
Access and support4 191 308 221 175 427 6 1,328
Child support5 511 626 344 191 464 0 2,136
Custody 278 205 85 53 79 0 700
Custody and support4 888 876 532 327 498 3 3,124
Other family breakdown2 44,505 25,670 8,560 4,296 11,394 54 94,479
Access 4,084 2,357 642 246 522 6 7,857
Access and custody 7,751 5,081 1,437 567 863 1 15,700
Access and custody and support4 6,437 6,447 2,921 1,668 3,599 8 21,080
Access and support4 1,141 1,102 451 206 613 4 3,517
Child support5 10,213 5,407 1,673 858 3,679 22 21,852
Custody 12,097 3,464 705 247 586 8 17,107
Custody and support4 2,782 1,812 731 504 1,532 5 7,366
Total active cases6 107,852 58,190 19,174 10,488 25,831 280 221,815
  percent
With no issues involving children identified – total 54 25 7 4 10 … 100
Divorce 54 25 6 4 10 … 100
Other family breakdown2 53 23 9 4 11 … 100
With issues involving children identified – total3 43 28 10 6 13 … 100
Divorce 25 29 17 11 18 … 100
Access 30 24 11 8 27 … 100
Access and custody 37 31 13 7 12 … 100
Access and custody and support4 23 31 19 12 16 … 100
Access and support4 14 23 17 13 32 … 100
Child support5 24 29 16 9 22 … 100
Custody 40 29 12 8 11 … 100
Custody and support4 28 28 17 10 16 … 100
Other family breakdown2 47 27 9 5 12 … 100
Access 52 30 8 3 7 … 100
Access and custody 49 32 9 4 5 … 100
Access and custody and support4 31 31 14 8 17 … 100
Access and support4 32 31 13 6 17 … 100
Child support5 47 25 8 4 17 … 100
Custody 71 20 4 1 3 … 100
Custody and support4 38 25 10 7 21 … 100
Total active cases6 49 26 9 5 12 … 100
1. A single court case may involve more than one court event (for example, document filings, hearings and judgments) as it proceeds through civil court. Each event may involve more than one issue. The Civil Court Survey captures up to seven issues for each event.
2. Refers to cases that addressed issues of custody, access, support or division of property outside of a divorce proceeding such as cases of separation or those deciding arrangements for a child born outside a union. Additionally, the category includes cases that may also have involved other issues, such as child protection, civil protection or guardianship.
3. The data used for this analysis are collected by the Civil Court Survey from the operational systems used to register and track civil court proceedings in the reporting provinces and territories. Many of these systems do not capture the nature of corollary issues or relief sought when cases are first initiated. Some of the information on the issues involved in family cases has been derived from activity over the life of the case, such as information on court orders, although there is often limited judgment detail available. Information related to these issues may be under reported and findings are limited to family cases where the information is available. The degree of under reporting is unknown.
4. Support may include one or more issues of child support, spousal support and other/unspecified support.
5. Some of these cases may also have involved spousal or other/unspecified support.
6. Refers to court cases that had activity or were initiated during the year.
Note: Excludes data from Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan due to the unavailability of data.
Source: Statistics Canada, Civil Court Survey.
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