Divorce & Separation
How Much Does a Separation Agreement Cost in BC?
By SiLaw Group Family LawyersPublished Nov 13, 2026 · 6 min read
At SiLaw Group Family Lawyers a separation agreement costs $900 to $8,000 plus GST and PST. Independent legal advice on an agreement someone else drafted is a fixed fee of $545 plus GST and PST (as of September 2026) for a one-hour session. Court filing fees are separate.
Where your file lands in that range is not random. It follows a short list of variables, most of which you control. This post walks through them, explains what independent legal advice is and why it is priced the way it is, compares the template-then-review route with full drafting, and gives the court filing fee for the one step that involves the registry. For what goes into the agreement itself, start with our complete guide to separation agreements in BC.
Why Is the Range So Wide?
A separation agreement can settle up to five things: parenting arrangements, child support, spousal support, division of property, and division of debt. A couple with no children, no real estate and similar incomes may have one or two of those in play. A couple with a home, a pension, a business and three children has all five, each with its own disclosure, valuation and drafting. The number of live issues is the first driver.
The second is how much is already agreed. Drafting terms two people have settled is quick. Negotiating them through lawyers is not, and every round of correspondence is billed time. The third is the complexity of the assets. A pension needs specific division wording. A business needs a valuation before anyone can agree on a number. A home needs a mechanism for sale or buyout, not just a decision about who keeps it.
The fourth is disclosure. Section 5 of the Family Law Act requires each party to provide the other with full and true information for the purpose of resolving the dispute. When both spouses gather their statements and tax returns promptly, the file moves. When one has to be chased, the cost climbs. Our pricing and fees page explains how these same drivers affect every kind of family law work.
What Does Independent Legal Advice Cost?
Independent legal advice is a fixed fee of $545 plus GST and PST (as of September 2026) for a one-hour session. Time beyond the hour is billed at the lawyer's hourly rate, and the fee may vary with the complexity of the agreement. Each spouse pays for their own lawyer, because one lawyer cannot act for both sides of the same agreement.
What you get for the fee is a lawyer who acts only for you, reads the agreement, explains what each term does and what you are giving up, tells you whether the deal sits within a reasonable range, and confirms that the advice was given. The value is in what it prevents. Under section 93(3) of the Family Law Act, the Supreme Court of British Columbia may set aside a property agreement if, when it was made, a spouse did not understand the nature or consequences of the agreement, or a spouse took improper advantage of the other spouse's vulnerability. Section 164(3) of the Act contains the same grounds for spousal support terms. Independent advice for each spouse is the contemporaneous answer to both. Our family law agreements page describes the review and advice work in more detail.
Template Then Review, or Full Drafting?
Two routes lead to a signed agreement, and the cheaper one depends on where you are starting.
Full drafting. One spouse's lawyer prepares the agreement from the decisions the couple has reached, the other spouse takes it to their own lawyer for independent legal advice, and both sign. The drafting falls within the $900 to $8,000 plus GST and PST range, and the other spouse's advice session is the $545 plus GST and PST (as of September 2026) fixed fee. This is the route for anyone with a home, a pension, a business or children, because those terms need mechanics that generic documents do not contain.
Self-drafted, then reviewed. You write the terms yourselves, or come out of mediation with a signed summary of what you agreed, and a lawyer reviews the document before anyone signs, with each spouse then getting independent advice. Reviewing an agreement is a defined task we take on as an unbundled service, quoted on its scope at the consultation. Two honest cautions. A review of a sound draft costs less than drafting from scratch. A review of a template downloaded from the internet often costs more, because the lawyer has to rebuild the document rather than check it. And a review without independent advice for each spouse leaves the agreement exposed to the very grounds described above.
If cost is the reason you are considering a template, say so at the consultation. The list of decisions you bring with you is what keeps the fee at the lower end of the range.
What Are the Court Filing Fees?
Most of a separation agreement never goes near a courthouse. The exception is the optional step of filing the support or parenting terms so they can be enforced as if they were orders, which our guide to separation agreements in BC describes.
In the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Schedule 1 of Appendix C to the Supreme Court Family Rules sets the fee for filing a written agreement under Rule 2-1 at $30, whether or not that filing starts a family law case (item 7.1). If the document package is transmitted through the Court Services Online electronic filing service, section 3 of the same Schedule adds a $7 electronic filing fee. Those figures are from the consolidation current to November 3, 2026. Schedule 4 of Appendix C provides for the fee table to be recalculated periodically, so confirm the current amount with the registry before you file.
In the Provincial Court, Rule 132 of the Provincial Court Family Rules allows a party to file a copy of the agreement using Form 26, the Request to File an Agreement. Those rules do not attach a filing fee to Rule 132. Filing is not what makes an agreement binding. Section 6(4) of the Family Law Act says an agreement is binding whether or not it is filed with a court. What filing changes is how support and parenting terms are enforced, which our enforcement and FMEP page explains.
How Does This Compare With Going to Court?
There is no honest number for contested litigation. It is billed hourly and the total depends on how many issues stay in dispute and for how long, as our post on the price of a fight explains. What can be said is that every issue settled in the agreement is an issue that never generates hourly litigation time, and that a signed agreement is what lets a married couple's divorce proceed as an uncontested desk order divorce, which with us is a flat $2,200 plus GST and PST (as of August 2026), with court filing fees separate.
How Do You Keep the Cost at the Lower End?
Four habits. Gather your disclosure before the first meeting, using our separation checklist as the list. Decide as much as you can between yourselves, or with a mediator, before a lawyer starts drafting. Choose independent legal advice now rather than set-aside litigation later, because section 93(3) and section 164(3) of the Family Law Act are far more expensive to meet in court than in a one-hour appointment. And do not sign anything under time pressure, since a signature obtained under pressure invites the vulnerability and common-law grounds in those sections.
Get a Quote That Fits Your File
The range is honest, and so is the reason it is wide. Tell us what you own, what you owe, whether you have children and how much you already agree on, and we will tell you where in the range you sit. The first 30 minutes with SiLaw Group are free, by phone, video, or in person in South Surrey. Call (778) 381-9977 or Book Now for a Free Consultation.
This post is legal information, not legal advice. Rules and fees are current to the date of writing and can change.
About SiLaw Group
SiLaw Group Family Lawyers is a Surrey, BC firm practising family law and mediation. Founder Sandy Sihota is an accredited Family Law Mediator, Arbitrator and Parenting Coordinator (Law Society of BC). Articles are legal information, not legal advice.