Divorce Records Canada: Are Divorces Public Records in Alberta?

Divorce records are public records in Alberta. You can confirm a divorce through the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings or by contacting the courthouse where proceedings occurred. Getting into the detailed court file runs through Alberta's Family Practice Note 10: parties, their lawyers, and accredited media have direct access, and anyone else can request access by serving a Request to Access Family Law File on the parties.

In Canada, except for Quebec, divorce records, including evidence such as texts or photos, are public records. That means anyone may access divorce documents presented in civil or family court in Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and other provinces, as long as the records have not been sealed. Public does not mean self-serve, though. Each province sets its own access procedure, and in Alberta that procedure is the Request to Access Family Law File process under Family Practice Note 10, described in detail below. Provincial rules on sealing vary, so some divorce records can still be restricted from public view.

Below is everything you need to know.

Quick take: are divorce records public in Alberta?

• Canada's Divorce Act does not prohibit or restrict the publication of court files.
• The Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings will only release someone else's divorce information if you have that person's written consent or need the record to enforce a law.
• A judge may order a publication ban, sealing order, or other restriction during proceedings.
• Parties sometimes ask to be identified by their initials, or to have children's identifying details left out. Neither is automatic under Alberta's published rules, so raise it with the court or with counsel. The mechanism that does have a published procedure is a Restricted Court Access Application.
• If a divorce related case is appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, records and judgments can be requested through the SCC Records Centre.
• You can request a copy of your Alberta certificate of divorce online through the Court of King's Bench. The certificate is not available until 31 days after the judgment is granted.
• You can search Alberta court records, including divorce and other civil files, through the eServices Alberta portal.
• Alberta courthouses hold the files for divorces their court processed. Older files for several judicial districts, running roughly 1918 to 1975, sit with the Provincial Archives of Alberta instead.
• To keep divorce files private, you must ask the court for a Restricted Court Access Application.
• You will need a court order to access sealed court files.
• Under section 8(2) of the Divorce Act, most divorces proceed on one year of separation with no allegation of fault, but adultery and cruelty remain statutory routes that avoid the one year wait.

Are Canadian divorces public records?

Divorce records are public under the open court principle, the common-law and Charter-based rule that court proceedings and court files are presumptively open to the public. The Access to Information Act (RSC 1985, c A-1) governs records held by federal government institutions, not provincial court files, so it is the open court principle, rather than that Act, that makes divorce court records publicly accessible.

Under Canadian law, only a court can grant a civil divorce. What about court transcripts? In Alberta, you order a courtroom transcript online through the Transcripts Digital Service, which routes the request to Transcript Management Services. Fees are charged per character and scale with how fast you need the transcript, and the Government of Alberta states plainly that transcript fees cannot be waived by the court.

Some transcripts are not available on request alone. Alberta's guidance notes that you may need a court order allowing release of the transcript where the file is sealed, and for youth offender and child welfare matters. Transcripts of Alberta Court of Justice Emergency Protection Order hearings cannot be ordered online at all.

What to remember:

• Provincial archives hold older divorce records.
• You can access divorce records at the courthouse where the proceedings took place, following the Family Practice Note 10 steps set out below.
• You can request a certificate of divorce online from the Court of King's Bench, naming the judicial centre that processed the divorce. The certificate is not available until 31 days after the judgment is granted, and the Court quotes up to 10 business days to process the request, not counting mailing time.
• You can access publicly available transcripts of court proceedings for a fee.

According to the Department of Justice Canada, the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings keeps divorce records from all the provinces filed after July 2, 1968. To request someone else's record, you must complete the Search Request and Consent Form.

In short, in Canada, you can access public court records if:

• You have the right to see the document under the applicable provincial access procedure, which in Alberta is Family Practice Note 10 for family and divorce files.
• You pay the applicable fee.
• The documents can be copied or photocopied.

You can access a digital recording of a court hearing if:

• You obtain judicial direction authorizing access.
• You pay the applicable fee.
• You have the right to obtain a copy.

If real property is involved, you should also understand dower rights under Alberta's Dower Act, which can require a spouse's written consent before the marital home is sold or mortgaged, separately from any divorce proceeding.

How can you find out if someone is divorced in Alberta?

You may use the Central Registry of Divorce proceedings linked above to find the court that processed the divorce application. Once you find the court, you may submit a request.

Note: the Central Registry only discloses details about someone else's divorce if you have that person's written consent or need the file to enforce a law, such as a support or parenting order.

Family practice Note 10 Alberta

When requesting divorce files in Alberta, you must comply with the requirements listed in Family Practice Note 10. Section 4 lists the people who simply have access to the court file, with no request needed:

• A party to the action, a lawyer of record, a lawyer for the child or children of a party, or a government employee acting in the course of employment in respect of that specific file.
• A person authorized by a party, a lawyer of record, or a lawyer for the child or children of a party, by means of a filed "Authority to Access Family Law File."
• Members of the media, accredited by the Court from time to time.

Two limits are worth reading alongside that list. Section 1 makes access under the Practice Note subject to any other laws, court orders, and practice notes restricting access. Section 3 defines "Court File" as the entire file but not the procedure card or scheduling information, and says anyone may access the procedure card and scheduling information.

If you are not on the section 4 list, section 5 requires, quote:

"Any other person who requests access to a Court File in a Family Law Proceeding must, each time they request access, complete and serve a "Request to Access Family Law File" form upon the parties to the action, the lawyers of record and the lawyer for the child or children of the parties, and file an Affidavit of Service with the Court."

Section 9 then sets the default outcome, and it is the part most people miss. If no Restricted Court Access Application is filed within 30 days of service of the Request to Access Family Law File, and provided the Affidavit of Service has been filed with the Court, the clerk must grant access to the file unless the Court has otherwise ordered. So a non-party's request is not a discretionary favour. Serving it correctly and waiting out the 30 day window is what produces access, and the parties' remedy is to apply to restrict the file within that window.

The Practice Note also tells you how to serve. Section 6 says the Clerk of the Court must provide the relevant Addresses for Service when asked, and section 7 allows service by an electronic method under Rule 11.21 or by recorded mail under Rule 11.22.

Are divorces public records in Alberta?

Yes, on the terms just described. Evidence presented in an Alberta divorce proceeding forms part of the court file, and the court file is presumptively open under the open court principle. What that openness looks like in practice is the Family Practice Note 10 sequence: the people listed in section 4 go straight to the file, everyone else serves a Request to Access Family Law File and gets access by default after 30 days, and a party or a child of a party can interrupt that by bringing a Restricted Court Access Application.

What counts as evidence in a divorce?

During divorce proceedings, either party may present the following as evidence.

• Abuse. To prove claims of spousal abuse, you may need hospital records, witness statements, and police records.
• Adultery. Evidence of adultery includes credit card charges, photos, emails, texts, online posts, receipts, social media activity, and so on.
• Hidden assets. Includes secret bank accounts, unreported income, safe deposit boxes, and retirement accounts.
• Income.

Conduct matters less than most people expect, but it is not irrelevant, and the common shorthand that fault plays no part in a Canadian divorce is too broad. Section 8(1) of the federal Divorce Act (RSC 1985, c 3 (2nd Supp)) makes breakdown of the marriage the only ground for divorce. Section 8(2) then sets out the two ways a spouse can establish that breakdown. The first, under section 8(2)(a), has two parts that both have to be satisfied: the spouses must have lived separate and apart for at least one year immediately preceding the determination of the divorce proceeding, and they must have been living separate and apart at the commencement of the proceeding. The second, under section 8(2)(b), is proving that the spouse against whom the proceeding is brought has, since celebration of the marriage, committed adultery or treated the other spouse with physical or mental cruelty of such a kind as to render intolerable the continued cohabitation of the spouses.

The separation route needs no allegation of fault at all, and it is how the great majority of divorces proceed. The adultery and cruelty route under section 8(2)(b) exists mainly because it lets an applicant avoid the one year wait, but it has to be proven, and it carries its own bars. Section 11(1)(c) requires the court to satisfy itself that the spouse bringing the proceeding has not condoned or connived at the conduct, and to dismiss the application if that spouse did, unless, in the opinion of the court, the public interest would be better served by granting the divorce. That closing qualifier matters: dismissal is the rule, not an absolute outcome, and the court keeps a discretion to grant the divorce anyway. Section 11(3) adds that resuming cohabitation for periods totalling no more than ninety days, with reconciliation as the primary purpose, does not count as condonation.

Section 11(1)(a) requires the court to dismiss an application it finds was presented collusively. Section 11(4) defines collusion as an agreement or conspiracy to which the applicant is directly or indirectly a party for the purpose of subverting the administration of justice, including any arrangement to fabricate or suppress evidence or to deceive the court. That definition expressly does not include an agreement to the extent that it provides for separation between the parties, financial support, division of property, or the exercise of parenting time or decision-making responsibility. A negotiated separation agreement is therefore not collusion.

Where conduct genuinely is walled off is elsewhere in the Act. Section 15.2(5) says a court making a spousal support order shall not take into consideration any misconduct of a spouse in relation to the marriage. Section 16(5) says a court determining the best interests of a child shall not take into consideration a person's past conduct unless it is relevant to that person's parenting time, decision-making responsibility, or contact with the child under a contact order. Those two rules are what people usually mean when they say conduct does not matter, and they are narrower than the way that idea is often repeated.

What to remember:

Before divorce proceedings, you may ask for the following protections.

• You can ask the court to refer to you using your initials instead of your full name. Alberta's published practice materials do not set out a standalone procedure for this, so treat it as a request to raise with the court or your lawyer, not an entitlement.
• You can ask that identifying information about children be left out. Confirm the approach with the court, because the mechanism with a published procedure is a Restricted Court Access Application under Part 6, Division 4 of the Alberta Rules of Court.

How to seal divorce records in Alberta

Section 8 of Alberta's Family Practice Note 10 requires that, quote:

"If a party or a child of a party wishes to prevent access to all or part of the Court File, he or she must bring a Restricted Court Access Application under Part 6, Division 4 of the Alberta Rules of Court. The applicant must give notice under Rule 6.31, including notice to the person requesting access to the file, and notice to the accredited media under Rule 6.32."

What is a Restricted Access Application in Alberta?

A Restricted Access Application is a court order that restricts access to your divorce records. Applicants must also file the Notice to Media of Application to Restrict Access so accredited media outlets are notified of the request. The Court of King's Bench has confirmed that this online notice, plus a printed copy presented to the clerk when the application is filed, is how it verifies compliance with Rule 6.32.

What to remember:

• For civil and family matters, the notice must be submitted five days before the hearing. For criminal matters, the notice period is seven days.

Can I look up someone else's divorce records in Alberta?

Yes, if the file has not been sealed or restricted. Start at the court where the proceedings happened, or with the eServices Alberta search linked above, then follow the Family Practice Note 10 steps: serve a Request to Access Family Law File on the parties, their lawyers of record, and the lawyer for any child of the parties, file the Affidavit of Service, and wait out the 30 day window in which a party or a child of a party can bring a Restricted Court Access Application. If that window passes with no such application, the clerk must grant access unless the Court has ordered otherwise.

Where to find divorce records in Alberta

Note that the year the divorce happened determines the location of the records. Consequently, below is what you need to know:

1841 to 1968: divorces granted by Acts of Parliament

You may access these divorce records through Library and Archives Canada's genealogy records, which cover births, marriages, deaths, and divorces granted by Acts of Parliament before Canada had a federal Divorce Act. The index holds about 15,000 entries, covering acts passed from 1841 to 1963 and Senate resolutions approved from 1964 to 1968, for the whole country.

Start here only if you have reason to think the divorce went through Parliament. Parliamentary divorce was the route for people in provinces whose courts could not grant a divorce, and Quebec and Newfoundland were the last two to need it. Library and Archives Canada notes on the same page that divorces were also handled by provincial and territorial courts, and that those older court records usually sit in the provincial and territorial archives. For an Alberta divorce from roughly 1918 onward, that means the court file, not an Act of Parliament, is almost certainly the record you want, so read the next section first.

1918 to 1975: Alberta court divorce files at the Provincial Archives

The Provincial Archives of Alberta holds divorce records for several judicial districts from around the province, which it describes as covering ca. 1918 to ca. 1975. Both ends of that range are approximate and the coverage varies by judicial district, so it helps to know where the divorce was granted before you search.

For divorce records after 1975, and for any district the Archives does not hold, you must contact the courthouse where the divorce proceedings took place.

In short, divorce records and civil court records in Alberta are public records, but public means presumptively open through a defined procedure, not available on demand at the counter. A party, a lawyer of record, a lawyer for the child, a government employee working on the file, an authorized person holding a filed Authority to Access Family Law File, and media accredited by the Court can go straight to the file. Everyone else serves a Request to Access Family Law File and, if no one applies to restrict the file within 30 days, the clerk must grant access unless the Court has ordered otherwise.

Related Canadian Guides

• Canadian law by province and topic
• Recording laws in Canada
• Hit and Run laws in Canada
• Child Support laws in Canada
• Slip and Fall laws in Canada
• Data Privacy laws in Canada