This section provides a top to bottom overview of the ''Divorce Act'' in an easy-to-read question and answer format. It is written primarily for justice system workers and legal advocates, but anyone can use it. All of the information provided in this section is discussed in more detail elsewhere in ''JP Boyd on Family Law''. Use the search tool at the top of the page to find more information about specific topics.

The very first Canadian ''[[Divorce Act]]'' didn't become law until 1968. It was overhauled and replaced with a new ''Divorce Act'' 17 years later, in 1985. The 1985 version of the act was updated in 1997 when the ''[[Child Support Guidelines]]'' were introduced, but it took another 23 24 years for the next major changes to the act to become lawon 1 March 2021. These most recent changes to the ''Divorce Act'' were very important because they changed the way we talk about parenting children from terms like ''custody'' and ''access'', which were about the rights of parents and tended to encourage conflict between separated parents, to terms like ''decision-making responsibility'' and ''parenting time'', which are about the rights of children and encourage separated parents to cooperate.