Table 6
Contested divorce cases by time since initiation, selected provinces and territories, 2010/2011

Table 6
Contested divorce cases by time since initiation, selected provinces and territories, 2010/2011
Province or territoryNote 2 Time since initiationNote 1 Total contested divorce casesNote 3 Total active divorce cases with full historyNote 4 Total active divorce casesNote 5 Percent contestedNote 6
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
number percent
Nova Scotia 245 221 130 89 234 919 4,759 5,354 19
Ontario 2,706 3,302 2,038 976 869 9,891 52,450 53,222 19
AlbertaNote 7 1,011 1,243 1,235 515 Note ..: not available for a specific reference period 4,004 20,760 29,496 19
British Columbia 1,842 1,306 756 644 906 5,454 23,338 24,732 23
Yukon 11 14 3 1 0 29 196 221 15
Northwest Territories 7 5 2 3 4 21 136 136 15
Nunavut 1 1 0 0 1 3 31 32 10
Total 5,823 6,092 4,164 2,228 2,014 20,321 101,670 113,193 20
.. not available for a specific reference period
1. Time since initiation is based on the year of case initiation with a fiscal year end of March 31. Calculated only for cases where the complete case history has been collected by the Civil Court Survey.
2. Excludes data from Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan due to the unavailability of data.
3. Refers to those cases where a Statement of Defence (the defendant's response to a claim or application) has been filed.
4. Refers to cases where the complete case history has been collected by the Civil Court Survey.
5. Refers to court cases that had activity or were initiated during the year.
6. Calculated as a proportion of total active divorce cases with full history.
7. In Alberta, the complete case history is not available for any divorce cases initiated prior to October 2007, the start of data collection for the Civil Court Survey.
Note: It is important to note that differences in how cases are processed in the provinces and territories may impact results related to "time since initiation" and comparisons between jurisdictions should be made with caution. For example, depending on jurisdictional practices, a variation of an existing order or further disputes related to the same family may either be captured under the original case file (which may distribute cases toward a longer "time since initiation") (e.g., as in British Columbia) or as a new case.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Civil Court Survey.
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