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→Reconciliation
For some people, separation is it. Their relationship is irrevocably over. For others, a period of separation is a time for renewing trust and rebuilding intimacy, and might be a healthy break that rejuvenates and revitalizes a relationship.
===Married spousesThe ''Divorce Act''===
The ''[[Divorce Act]]'' actually tries to discourage divorce, believe it or not. There are a few parts of the act that promote reconciliation so that spouses stay together. Section 7.7 requires lawyers to talk to their clients about getting back together:
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><tt>(ii) by reason only that the spouses have resumed cohabitation during a period of, or periods totalling, not more than ninety days with reconciliation as its primary purpose.</tt></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
In other words, a married couple may attempt to reconcile and can resume a cohabiting relationship for a maximum of 90 days without stopping the clock on separation as a ground of reason for a divorceorder. If a couple have lived together for more than 90 days since the first separation, the one-year clock will start again at the end of the last period in which they lived together as a married couplespouses.
The 90 days needn't be consecutive in <span class="noglossary">order</span> to stop the clock. If you are claiming separation as the ground of reason for your divorce, you cannot have resumed your relationship with your spouse for a total of 90 days within the one-year period of separation.
===Unmarried spousesThe ''Family Law Act''===
Because unmarried couples don't need to get divorced, the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' has no similar provisions doesn't talk about divorce, it also doesn't talk about separation and attempts at reconciliation, except in relation to reconcile. The one exception has to do with the division of propertyand debt under Part 5 of the act. Section 83(1) says this:
<blockquote><tt>(1) For the purposes of this Part, spouses are not considered to have separated if, within one year after separation, </tt></blockquote>
<blockquote><blockquote><tt>(a) they begin to live together again and the primary purpose for doing so is to reconcile, and</tt></blockquote></blockquote>
<blockquote><blockquote><tt>(b) they continue to live together for one or more periods, totalling at least 90 days. </tt></blockquote></blockquote>