Frequently asked questions

The duration depends on whether the parties agree and on the complexity of the issues involved. An amicable separation or divorce can be concluded considerably sooner than a contested case. We will give you a realistic picture at your first conversation, without promising a result or a date.

No honest figure can be given without knowing your situation. Cost depends mainly on whether the case is agreed or contested, how many mediation sessions and hearings there are, how complex your property is, and whether experts are needed.

We explain our fees clearly before you decide anything. See what affects the cost of a divorce.

It is a conversation, not a commitment. We listen to your situation, explain the options and what each would involve, and answer your questions. You do not have to decide anything, and there is no obligation to go further. See what happens at a first meeting.

Yes. We can meet at our office in Valletta or online, whichever suits you. We advise in Maltese and in English, so you can use the language you are most comfortable with.

Not to obtain a divorce. The application does not need to say that the other spouse was at fault. Fault can still matter to some consequences: if the court finds one spouse responsible for the breakdown on certain grounds, it can apply the rules that apply on separation, which can affect things like a share of assets built up mainly through the other spouse’s work.

Mediation is a series of sessions with a trained neutral mediator, who helps you reach agreement or tests whether you can reconcile. Before a separation or divorce case can begin, the Family Court sends you to mediation. Mediation generally involves at least six sessions within eight months, extendable by up to four months, although mediation that is unsuccessful may be ended earlier. You do not need it for a divorce if you are already separated by a contract or judgment.

What you agree in mediation becomes binding only when the court approves it by decree. What is said in mediation is private and cannot be used as evidence. See family mediation in Malta.

Yes. One spouse can apply for divorce against the other, and the divorce does not depend on the other spouse’s agreement or on proving fault. The court must be satisfied that you have lived apart for long enough (at least one year out of the two years before the case began, or you are already separated by a contract or a court judgment), that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation, and that you, your spouse and your children are receiving adequate maintenance where it is due.

A contested divorce generally involves more hearings than an agreed one. See contested and consensual divorce.

No. The court looks at whether you have lived apart for long enough (at least six months out of the year before the case began if you apply together, or at least one year out of the previous two if one spouse applies), or whether you are already separated by a contract or a court judgment.

If a separation case is already under way, the two are connected: either spouse can ask for it to be treated as a divorce case, and a divorce request made separately is heard together with it. See requirements and process.

Separation ends the obligation to live together, but the marriage continues: you cannot marry anyone else, and you can reunite at any time. Divorce ends a valid marriage. If you are separated by a contract or a court judgment, that satisfies the living-apart condition for a later divorce.

Neither is right for everyone, and many couples choose for personal, financial or religious reasons. See divorce or separation: which route fits your situation?

You can separate by agreement through a public deed, without a contested case, but the court must authorise it. You agree the terms, a draft deed is prepared and reaches the court, a mediator examines it, and before giving its authority the court explains the consequences of separation, tries to reconcile you and may change or add conditions.

The separation takes effect against other people only from the day the deed is registered in the Public Registry. We recommend that each spouse takes their own legal advice. See consensual separation by public deed.

The Civil Code gives three grounds: adultery; excesses, cruelty, threats or grievous injury against the spouse or any of their children, or that the spouses cannot reasonably be expected to live together because the marriage has irretrievably broken down; and desertion for two years or more without good grounds.

Before a case can be brought, the Family Court must authorise the spouse to proceed, which follows a period of mediation. See contested separation.

The spouse who wants to proceed files a letter asking the Family Court for authorisation, together with a sworn note listing assets and liabilities (including the matrimonial home), an income statement for the previous three years (for an employee, the FS3), and proposals for property, the children and maintenance. The other spouse has 20 days to reply with their own proposals and the same documents.

These rules came into force on 1 October 2026. See what the 2026 family court reform changes and financial disclosure in a Maltese separation.

While a case is going on, either spouse can ask the court to decide who lives in the matrimonial home. On separation, the court can order that one spouse lives there for a time, that the home is sold, or, where it belongs to both, that it is assigned to one spouse who compensates the other. It looks first at the best interests of the children. Please do not sell, mortgage or move out before getting advice. See the matrimonial home.

It is Malta’s default system for the property of a married couple. A marriage celebrated in Malta produces it automatically, unless the spouses agreed otherwise by public deed. It includes what either spouse acquires through their work, the fruits of each spouse’s property (such as rent), and property bought with money from the acquests, even if it is in one spouse’s name only. Property a spouse already owned before the marriage is not part of it.

When the community ends, on separation or divorce for example, each spouse takes one half of the assets and liabilities. See the community of acquests.

It can. The name on an account or deed does not decide it. Under the community of acquests, property bought with money that came from the acquests is part of the community even if it is in one spouse’s name only, and all property that either or both spouses possess is presumed to be part of the acquests unless there is proof to the contrary.

Because the answer depends on when and how each asset was acquired, it helps to bring your records to a first conversation. See the community of acquests and financial disclosure in a Maltese separation.

Where an account is held does not by itself put it outside disclosure. In a separation case decided by the Court of Appeal on 28 April 2026 (Application 125/2018/5 AL), the court required an account holder to produce his own overseas bank statements, including statements for closed accounts, by a set deadline.

Requiring a party to produce their own records is different from obtaining records from a foreign bank or another third party. See overseas bank accounts in a Maltese separation case.

If a spouse owns the home or part of it, that spouse can sell or give away their right over it only with the other spouse’s consent, or with the court’s authority where consent is unreasonably withheld, or in a judicial sale at a creditor’s request. A spouse who did not consent to a transfer can bring an action to annul it within one year of its registration.

Under the community of acquests, acts such as selling or mortgaging immovable property also need both spouses together. See the matrimonial home.

No. The matrimonial home belongs to both spouses and neither of them can change the lock of the front door to keep the other spouse out, as both are co-possessors of the home, irrespective of which spouse owns it, unless the court has ordered otherwise.

However, if there are other issues, such as physical violence, a report can be filed at the police station so that the court takes cognisance of the matter and pronounces itself on it. If you are afraid of your spouse, see domestic violence in Malta. In an emergency, call 112.

Yes. Spouses can agree by a marriage contract, before or after the wedding, that property they acquire during the marriage stays separate (often called separation of estates), or that each manages their own property and the “residue” is equalised when the community ends.

A marriage contract must be made by public deed, on pain of nullity, and does not bind third parties unless it is registered in the Public Registry. After the wedding, spouses can vary their agreements, or make a contract if they had none, with the authority of the court. See marriage contracts.

When parents separate or divorce, the children’s welfare comes first in every decision the court makes about them. Both parents keep their duty to look after, maintain and educate their children, whatever happens to the marriage. If the parents cannot agree, the court decides who has custody and arranges access, and it can hear the children and appoint a Children’s Advocate to represent them. Parents who are not married have the same duties, and their disputes go through the same process. See children.

When parents separate, the court gives directions about who has custody, and the children’s welfare is the paramount consideration. While a case is going on, it decides care and custody, residence and access at either parent’s request. Access is the time a child spends with the parent they do not live with.

Separation does not end either parent’s duty to look after, maintain and educate their children. See care, custody and access: what the words mean in Maltese law.

Normally only with the other parent’s agreement or the court’s decision. Where a child lives, in particular whether in another country, is the sort of decision that needs both parents to agree, failing which either can apply to the court. If the other parent does not agree, the proper step is to apply to the court before you go.

Moving a child without agreement or a court decision can amount to wrongful removal under the Hague Convention, in which case the court of the country the child has been taken to must order the child’s return if less than a year has passed, with limited exceptions. See relocation and moving abroad with your children from Malta.

Access is both a right and an obligation: the parent who has been given it must exercise it, and the other parent must provide it. A breach is treated as a breach of a court decree. The other parent can apply to the court, which can make orders to ensure compliance and, where breaches are repeated without good reason, can suspend a parent’s rights in proportion to the breach.

Refusing access without just cause when ordered by a court can also be a criminal contravention. See access.

There is no single formula. Maintenance is due in proportion to the need of the person claiming it and the means of the person who has to pay. After a separation, the court also looks at the needs of the children, any disability or illness, whether a spouse’s ability to earn was reduced by caring for the household and children, the income of each spouse and their housing needs.

The decision also provides for the children’s health, education and extracurricular expenses and how each parent contributes. See how child maintenance is decided in Malta.

Maintenance can change when circumstances do. A person who can no longer pay, or whose need for maintenance ends, can ask to be released or to have the amount reduced, and after a separation the court can vary or stop maintenance where there is a supervening change in means or needs. A change that is not agreed goes through mediation first.

If maintenance is not paid, the court can order part of a salary to be paid directly to the person owed, or order a standing order with a bank. Failing to pay a sum fixed by a court or by contract within fifteen days is also a criminal contravention. See variation and enforcement.

Yes. Malta’s Cohabitation Act (Cap. 614) gives couples who live together rights and duties if they make a public deed before a notary. We can explain what a deed gives you, help you make one, and advise if the cohabitation ends. Without a deed your rights are more limited.

We also help unmarried parents with legal issues affecting their children, such as care and custody, residence, access and maintenance. These go through the same mediation and court process as for married parents. See children and cohabitation in Malta.

The main rights come from a cohabitation deed made before a notary and registered in the Public Registry under the Cohabitation Act (Cap. 614). A cohabitant has a right of habitation in the cohabitation home, the same labour and family-leave rights as a married person (with some exceptions), and the right to take decisions about the other’s medical care. If a partner dies, the survivor has a right of habitation for twelve months over the cohabitation home in the cases the Act sets out.

Cohabitants also have a duty to support each other and to contribute to the family’s needs. Without a deed, your rights are more limited. See rights and duties of cohabitants.

Divorce ends a marriage that was valid. An annulment is a declaration that the marriage was void from the start, because something the Marriage Act requires was missing when it was celebrated, for example a person under eighteen, a previous marriage still in force, or consent obtained by violence, fear or fraud.

Which is right depends on the facts. For many couples divorce is the more practical route, while an annulment may matter for personal or religious reasons. A church annulment and a civil annulment are separate processes, and one does not automatically give you the other. See annulment.

Yes, cross-border cases are part of our work. A Maltese court can hear a divorce if at least one spouse is domiciled in Malta, or has been ordinarily resident here for the year before the application. Where another EU country is involved, EU rules also decide which country’s courts can hear the case. Tell us where each of you lives when you get in touch. See divorcing in Malta as a foreigner.

Often, yes. A foreign decision on a person’s marital status is recognised in Malta if it comes from a country where either spouse is domiciled or of which either spouse is a citizen. Divorces from other EU countries are recognised without a special procedure, apart from limited grounds for refusal. Please take advice before you rely on a foreign decree, particularly before you remarry. See is a divorce granted abroad valid in Malta?.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 112; the number operates 24 hours a day. For support and help finding the right service, call 179, the national helpline, which is free and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can report domestic violence at any police station, and you can seek support while you are still deciding what to do about the relationship.

The law can help with protection, your home, your children and separation. While a separation case is going on, the court can decide who lives in the matrimonial home. See domestic violence in Malta: getting help and your legal options.