Family Lawyers in Singapore

Family matters arrive in the middle of the rest of your life, usually at speed, and usually with someone asking you to make decisions before you have had time to understand the options. This page sets out how the pieces fit together and where to start.

Which of these is your situation?

You want to end a marriage. After three years of marriage, that is a divorce. Before three years, or where the marriage was never valid in the first place, it may be an annulment instead. The distinction matters and it is not always the obvious one.

You are worried about the children. Who they live with, who decides for them, and how much time each parent gets are separate questions with separate legal answers. See custody, care and control.

You need money, or you are being asked for it. Spousal and child maintenance can be applied for during a marriage, not only after it ends.

You are getting married, or already are. A prenuptial agreement sets out what happens if things do not work. A postnuptial does the same thing after the wedding, and we prepare both.

You are frightened of someone at home. A personal protection order can be applied for against a family member, and an expedited order can be sought where the danger is immediate.

An existing order no longer works. Maintenance, custody and access orders can be varied where circumstances have genuinely changed. Bring the order and we will tell you whether an application is likely to succeed.

The two halves of a divorce

Most of the confusion around divorce in Singapore comes from not knowing that it is really two proceedings, dealt with in order.

The dissolution is the marriage itself ending. There is one ground, that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, and you establish it by proving one of six facts. Where both spouses agree, this part is largely administrative.

The ancillary matters are everything else: the children, the maintenance, and the division of matrimonial assets. This is where the real disagreements sit, where the money is, and where a case becomes expensive if it becomes contested.

People commonly agree to the divorce and then discover the argument was never about the divorce. It is worth knowing the two are separable, because it is entirely possible to have an uncontested dissolution and a hard-fought ancillary hearing.

What the court does before it hears you

Singapore’s family courts are structured to reduce conflict before it reaches a judge, and there are steps you cannot skip.

Where there is a child under 21, parties are generally required to complete the Mandatory Parenting Programme before divorce proceedings can be commenced, and to attend mediation and counselling through the courts’ family dispute resolution process afterwards. This frustrates people who arrive wanting a fight. In practice it settles a great many matters that would otherwise have consumed a year and a great deal of money.

Our job in that process is not to make it more combative. It is to make sure that what you agree to in a mediation room is something you can still live with in five years.

Do you qualify to divorce in Singapore

Two thresholds catch people out:

• Jurisdiction. At least one spouse must be domiciled in Singapore, or must have been habitually resident here for at least three years before the proceedings
• The three-year rule. A marriage generally has to have lasted three years before a divorce can be filed. There are exceptions for exceptional hardship or exceptional depravity, and there is the annulment route where the marriage is void or voidable

If you are not sure where you stand, the eligibility check on our divorce page will tell you in a couple of minutes.

What it costs

Uncontested divorce is a fixed fee, from S$1,500, and the full fee table with the conditions attached to it is on the divorce page. Contested matters are quoted by written estimate after a consultation, because an honest number depends on what is actually in dispute.

The first consultation on a divorce is free. Come with your questions rather than your documents; we can tell you a great deal before anything is filed.

How we work

Family cases are decided as much by temperament as by law. Two people can have identical facts and completely different outcomes depending on how the case is run.

We do not inflame matters to justify a fee, and we do not tell you that you will win. What we do is set out what a court is realistically likely to order, what it will cost to find out, and where the negotiating room actually is. Where a matter should settle, we settle it. Where it genuinely has to be fought, our litigators do that too.

Family law in Singapore: frequently asked questions

Do my spouse and I need separate lawyers?

Yes, if you both want advice. One lawyer cannot act for both spouses, because your interests conflict even where you are on good terms. What is common in an uncontested divorce is that one spouse instructs a lawyer to prepare the papers on agreed terms and the other takes independent advice before signing. That is cheaper than two full sets of proceedings, and it is not the same as sharing a lawyer.

How long does a divorce take?

Where nothing is disputed, roughly four months from filing to Final Judgment: about a month to Interim Judgment, then a three month wait the law requires before it can be made final. A contested divorce has no useful average. It depends entirely on what is in dispute and how quickly that can be narrowed.

What happens to the HDB flat?

It is divided as part of the matrimonial assets, but HDB’s own eligibility rules sit on top of the court’s order: whether either of you can keep the flat depends on citizenship, age, family nucleus and the minimum occupation period, not only on what you agree. This is one of the questions worth asking early, because the answer often shapes the whole settlement.

Is Singapore a fault-based system?

There is only one ground, that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, but you still have to establish it by one of six facts, some of which involve fault and some of which do not. Since 1 July 2024 there is also divorce by mutual agreement, which allows a couple to state jointly that the marriage has broken down without either having to allege anything against the other.

Can I apply for maintenance without divorcing?

Yes. A wife, and in defined circumstances a husband, can apply for maintenance during the marriage where a spouse has neglected or refused to provide it. Child maintenance likewise does not require a divorce. Leaving a marriage and being provided for are separate questions, and you do not have to answer the first to ask the second.

Will I have to go to court?

Often not, or not for long. An uncontested divorce is usually dealt with on the papers. Where there are children under 21 you will attend the mandatory parenting programme and court mediation, which are meetings rather than hearings. It is contested ancillary matters that produce real court time.

Can custody or maintenance be changed later?

Yes. Orders about children and about maintenance are not permanent. Where circumstances have genuinely changed, a job loss, a relocation, a child’s needs changing as they grow, an application can be made to vary the order. What a court will not entertain is an application that is really an attempt to relitigate the original decision.

What if I am frightened of my spouse right now?

That is a separate and more urgent application than a divorce. A personal protection order can be applied for against a family member who has committed or is likely to commit family violence, and where the danger is immediate an expedited order can be sought without waiting for the full hearing. See our personal protection orders page, and if you are in immediate danger, call the police first and the lawyer afterwards.