Self Help Divorce Kit Saskatchewan
What the Free Saskatchewan Self-Help Divorce Kit Actually Contains
Saskatchewan's Court of King's Bench publishes a free Self-Help Divorce Kit through the Family Law Information Centre. The kit comes in two versions: the Sole Petitioner Kit (for one spouse filing alone) and the Co-Petitioner Kit (for couples filing together using Form 15-100A). Both are downloadable PDFs from the court's website.
Inside, you get blank Part 15 court forms — the Petition for Divorce (Form 15-16), Affidavit of Personal Service (Form 15-8A), Financial Statement (Form 15-47), and the various supporting affidavits. The kits include a general instruction sheet explaining the filing sequence and a list of court registry locations across Saskatchewan.
That's it. No worksheets, no sample parenting schedules, no guidance on how to actually write the parenting proposals that Sections 24C and 24D of the Petition require you to fill in.
Where the Kit Falls Short on Parenting Time
The gap becomes obvious the moment you reach the parenting sections. The kit gives you blank fields where you need to propose a parenting-time schedule and decision-making arrangement for your children. But it doesn't explain what a 2-2-3 rotation looks like versus a 4-3 schedule, how to structure holiday divisions, or how to calculate whether your proposed schedule meets the 40% shared-parenting threshold that initiates a shared-parenting calculation but does not automatically produce a simple set-off child-support amount under Section 9 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines.
Since March 2021, Saskatchewan has replaced "custody" and "access" with "decision-making responsibility" and "parenting time" under The Children's Law Act, 2020. The free kit's instruction sheet touches on this terminology change, but it doesn't walk you through what joint versus sole decision-making responsibility actually means in practice — how education decisions, non-emergency medical choices, and religious upbringing get allocated between parents.
The PLEA Agreement Maker Gap
Parents used to have a second free option. The Public Legal Education Association of Saskatchewan (PLEA) operated an interactive Agreement Maker tool on familylaw.plea.org that generated separation agreements and parenting plans through interview-style questions. That tool is currently offline for revision, leaving self-represented parents without a free interactive drafting resource.
PLEA's website at familylaw.plea.org still offers excellent plain-language legal education articles covering decision-making responsibility, parenting time, and the mandatory dispute resolution process. These articles explain the law clearly but don't give you fillable worksheets or schedule templates.
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Everything in this article as a printable checklist — plus action plans and reference guides you can start using today.
What You Need Beyond the Kit
To go from the kit's blank forms to a court-ready filing, you need to resolve several specific questions:
- Parenting-time schedule: Which rotation pattern fits your children's ages and your work schedules? How many overnights does each option produce annually?
- Decision-making allocation: Will major decisions about education, health, and extracurriculars be made jointly, or will you split responsibility by topic area?
- Transition logistics: Where will exchanges happen? Who handles transportation? What's the protocol when someone is late?
- Holiday and vacation division: How do you alternate Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and summer breaks?
- Financial disclosure: Where Form 15-47 is required, it requires detailed income and expense disclosure — you need three years of tax returns and Notices of Assessment from CRA.
The Saskatchewan Child Custody and Parenting Plan Guide walks through each of these questions with structured worksheets and pre-written clauses you can adapt for your specific situation.
Filing Costs and Registry Details
Even with the free kit, filing isn't free. The Court of King's Bench charges CA$300 to file a contested Petition for Divorce, CA$200 for a Joint Petition, and approximately CA$500 total for a complete uncontested joint filing including all administrative fees. The certified copy of your Divorce Order costs CA$10 from the Local Registrar's office.
You'll also need to budget for personal service — the Respondent must be served by an independent adult (not you), and process servers charge CA$50 to CA$150 in Saskatchewan. If filing by fax, the registry charges an additional CA$1.00 per page surcharge.
Making the Kit Work For You
The self-help kit is a legitimate starting point — it gives you the correct, current court forms. The challenge is filling them in with a parenting plan that a judge can use. If you arrive at a Judicial Case Conference in Saskatoon or Regina with vague language like "reasonable parenting time," the court may require greater specificity.
Before you start filling in the blanks, consider working through a structured parenting plan workbook that translates the kit's legal requirements into plain-language steps. It's a fraction of the cost of a single hour with a family lawyer at CA$250–$400 per hour, and it means you show up to mediation or court with a detailed proposal instead of blank pages.
Get Your Free Saskatchewan — Parenting Plan Starter Checklist
Download the Saskatchewan — Parenting Plan Starter Checklist — a printable guide with checklists, scripts, and action plans you can start using today.