[Divorce] What is the Procedure of Getting a Divorce? (Uncontested Divorce)
Is the process of getting a divorce in Malaysia complicated? Can it be done without hiring a lawyer?
Today, we are going to discuss about the general procedure of getting a divorce in Malaysia.
First of all, to get a a divorce in Malaysia you do need to hire a lawyer. It is quite impossible to file all the court papers by one if he/she doesn’t have any background in law.
For uncontested divorce, these are the procedures for getting a divorce:
- Hire a lawyer. You may search online or walk in any law firm that specialize in family law. Please note that not every law firm will cover all areas of law. Some specialized in criminal law, some specialized in family law and some specialized in property law etc.
- The lawyer will prepare the Divorce Petition based on the terms you and your partner have agreed upon. You just need to sign on it and the lawyer will help you to file the papers in court. The court will then fix a hearing date and your lawyer will inform you so.
- Here comes the most important step – the hearing. You and your partner both have to attend to the court hearing. Do remember to bring your IC for verification.
- After hearing, the court will issue a document called “decree nisi”, which will list down all the details / terms for the divorce.
- There will be a 3 months “calm down period”, upon the expiration of the period your lawyer will help you to write a letter to Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) to update you and your partner’s marital status.
That’s all for the procedure of uncontested divorce. It is taking shorter time and less procedures comparing to contested divorce. We will discuss about the procedures for contested divorce in our other post. See you next time!