WHAT TYPES OF DIVORCE ARE AVAILABLE IN COLOMBIA?.

By Esteban Rada
Colombian lawyer
Email: lawyerscolombia at yahoo.com


Since 1992 until 2005, the only option to get divorced was through a judicial lawsuit. However, when the law 965/05 started, the express divorce appeared as the first option for those persons having an agreement or an understanding to terminate the marriage in the fastest time possible.

Today there are two main ways to get divorced

A) When there is an agreement :

The couple can choose between going to Court or accept the express divorce. The Court option is usually chosen by people who have kids under 18 years old who have an understanding about finishing the marriage but don’t agree about the liquidation of assets.

The other alternative is the express divorce which is used by people who have an agreement about the divorce and the liquidation of assets. Its costs are higher than the option above however. If you don’t have kids, the divorce decision is made in 4 working days plus 7 days for the registration. Now, when the couple has children and chooses this way, the time to get divorced is around 30 working days.

b) The second main option is the trial divorce.

This is used only when the couple doesn’t have an agreement about the divorce. Therefore the judge has to decide about the union and the causes that created the problem and determine who was responsible for the unions’ failure.

It’s important to know that in Colombia the divorce doesn’t include the liquidation of assets. This is handled in a separate case when we are talking about divorces in Court or the express divorce.

I recommend consulting a lawyer. In all options I have learned from my work experience that there is the possibility to save several trips to Colombia but all depend on the cases and the situation.

Thanks for those who have written to my email. Feel free to ask any legal doubt,

Esteban Rada
Colombian lawyer
Email: lawyerscolombia at yahoo.com

By lawyer CO on Aug 15, 2008, 07:34 in Visa & paperwork.

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