Are Divorce Records Public in New Brunswick? 2026 Complete Guide

Divorce records in New Brunswick are presumptively public, but they are not available through any online self-serve database. The Court of King's Bench, Family Division keeps divorce files at individual courthouses across 8 judicial districts, and members of the public must request access in person or by written form. Youth, adoption, and publication-ban cases are restricted.

Key Facts: New Brunswick Divorce Records

Are Divorce Records Public in New Brunswick?

Divorce records in New Brunswick are public court records under the open-court principle, but access is restricted in practice: the province's online public self-serve website excludes all divorce and family files, so no one can search a divorce record over the internet. To view a divorce file, a person must contact the specific courthouse in one of the 8 judicial districts where the divorce was filed and complete an access request under the Access to Court Records Guideline. This is the central reality behind the question of whether divorce records are public in New Brunswick: they exist in the public domain but sit behind a paper request process rather than a searchable database.

New Brunswick's justice system operates on the open-court principle, meaning court proceedings and their records are presumptively accessible to the public and the press. The Court of King's Bench, Family Division hears every divorce in the province and maintains the resulting files. However, the practical accessibility of these records is deliberately narrow. The NB Courts Public Self-Serve Website lets the public search only four categories of files: all civil cases and judgments, all Small Claims cases, all Bankruptcy cases, and all Probate cases. Divorce and family matters are conspicuously absent from that list, which is a privacy-protective design choice rather than an accident.

Where Are New Brunswick Divorce Records Kept?

New Brunswick divorce records are held at the individual courthouse where the petition was filed, within the Court of King's Bench, Family Division, and they are not centralized in any single searchable database. The province has 8 judicial districts—Bathurst, Campbellton, Edmundston, Fredericton, Miramichi, Moncton, Saint John, and Woodstock—and a file remains at the Registry Office of the district where the matter was heard.

Because records live locally, a divorce records search always begins by identifying the correct judicial district. Under Divorce Act, Divorce Act § 3, a petition is filed where one spouse ordinarily resides, so the file will be located in the courthouse serving that person's district at the time of filing. If you do not know the district, you may need to contact more than one Registry Office. Each courthouse maintains its own family files, and staff can confirm whether a specific divorce proceeding exists in their district before you submit a formal access request. The daily docket—posted publicly inside courthouses and often displayed on television screens in main hallways—lists scheduled criminal, civil, and divorce trials, which is one way the open-court principle operates day to day in New Brunswick.

How Do You Access Divorce Records in New Brunswick?

To access a divorce record in New Brunswick, you contact the Court of King's Bench, Family Division courthouse in the correct judicial district, complete the required access form under the Access to Court Records Guideline, and pay any applicable copy fees. Because divorce files are excluded from the online self-serve system, there is no digital shortcut—every public divorce records search runs through a courthouse.

The process follows a predictable sequence. First, identify the judicial district where the divorce was filed among the province's 8 districts. Second, contact that courthouse's Registry Office to confirm the file exists and to learn the current access procedure, which the Department of Justice and Public Safety publishes in its Access to Court Records Guide. Third, complete and submit the applicable access or file-search request form, which courthouses often require for family and divorce matters. Records are kept at individual courthouses, so requests are handled locally rather than through a provincial portal. Certain document copies carry fees; for example, a Certificate of Divorce costs $7 once the judgment becomes effective. As of July 2026, verify all current amounts with your local Registry Office, since court fees change without public notice.

What Divorce Information Is Restricted from the Public?

Certain New Brunswick court matters show only limited information to the public even under the open-court principle, including adoptions, youth matters, cases under a publication ban, and proceedings involving children under the Family Services Act. In these categories, sensitive personal details are shielded, and full file access is not automatically granted to a member of the public.

This restriction reflects a balance between transparency and privacy. While the divorce record itself is presumptively public, specific content within a family file can be protected. Matters involving children are treated with heightened care, and any case subject to a judicial publication ban will display only limited information in public-facing systems. The federal layer adds another privacy boundary: the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings (CRDP), a federal body created in 1986 under the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings Regulations, does not release divorce details to the general public. The CRDP may only give you information about someone else's divorce if you need it to enforce a law or if you have the written consent of one of the parties, and you must submit proof of authorization such as a will, power of attorney, or certificate of appointment of estate trustee. The CRDP cannot supply a copy of a divorce certificate at all—that request goes to the court that processed the divorce.

Can You Seal Divorce Records in New Brunswick?

Sealing a divorce file or obtaining a publication ban in New Brunswick is possible only by court order, granted at a judge's discretion under the New Brunswick Rules of Court, and it is not automatic simply because a party prefers privacy. New Brunswick already restricts public display of sensitive family categories, but a party seeking to seal an ordinary divorce record must persuade the Court of King's Bench that the privacy interest outweighs the open-court principle.

Canadian courts apply a demanding standard to sealing orders and publication bans because open courts are a constitutional value. A judge weighs whether disclosure poses a serious risk to an important interest—such as the safety of a child or a party—and whether the benefits of a sealing order outweigh its negative effects on the open-court principle, court transparency, and free expression. In practice, blanket sealing of a routine divorce file is rarely granted; targeted protection—redacting a specific address, sealing a financial exhibit, or imposing a narrow publication ban to protect a child—is more common. To pursue any such protection, a party typically brings a motion within the existing divorce proceeding at the Court of King's Bench, Family Division. Because New Brunswick's Rules of Court do not offer a simple self-serve sealing form for family files, most parties seeking to protect divorce records privacy consult family-law counsel before filing a motion.

How Does the Divorce Process Create the Record?

Every New Brunswick divorce generates a court file the moment a petition is filed with the Court of King's Bench, Family Division, and that file—petition, affidavits, financial disclosure, and the final Divorce Judgment—becomes the divorce record. The record is built through a defined process governed by the federal Divorce Act and New Brunswick's Rule 72.

The process begins with a filing fee of $110—$100 for the petition plus $10 for the Clearance Certificate from the CRDP—paid to the Minister of Finance for the Province of New Brunswick. Spouses file individually using Form 72A or jointly using Form 72B. Under Divorce Act § 3, one spouse must have ordinarily resided in New Brunswick for at least 12 months before filing. A respondent served within the province has 20 days to respond; service elsewhere in Canada extends the deadline to 30 days, and service outside Canada to 60 days. The ground for divorce under Divorce Act § 8 is most commonly a one-year separation, though adultery or cruelty also qualify. After the Divorce Judgment issues, a 31-day appeal period runs before the divorce becomes final and a $7 Certificate of Divorce can be obtained. Each of these steps adds documents to the public file.

What About Financial and Parenting Details in the File?

Financial disclosure and parenting arrangements filed during a New Brunswick divorce become part of the court record, but access to sensitive child-related details is restricted where a publication ban or child-protection provision applies. Financial affidavits, support calculations, and property equalization documents under the Family Law Act (SNB 2020, c. 23) sit within the file and can appear in a public records request unless a judge has ordered otherwise.

New Brunswick uses the 2021 Divorce Act terminology throughout its forms: parenting arrangements and decision-making responsibility replaced the older language of "custody," and parenting time replaced "access," pursuant to Divorce Act § 16.1. When parenting is contested, a parenting order and any relocation notice become part of the file. The 2021 amendments also imposed a burden-of-proof framework for relocation that varies with the existing parenting arrangement. Because these matters involve children, courts frequently limit public display of the specific details. Financial disclosure is governed under family-proceeding discovery rules, and while the equalization of marital property under the Family Law Act is a public-law process, the underlying dollar figures may be redacted in a public records search when a party has obtained a targeted sealing order. Anyone conducting a public divorce filings search should expect parenting and child-financial details to be the most likely content to be shielded.

Divorce Records Access: Court vs. Federal Registry