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Divorces in England and Wales could become quicker, less stressful and cheaper, but there are fears people will miss out on advice.
Under government changes in force from 6 April, most separating couples will be expected to try mediation before going to the courts.
Couples can pay between £20,000 and £50,000 if a divorce case requires court time, said one mediation firm.
This could drop to between £5,000 and £10,000 if mediation worked, it said.
The Hollywood actors filed for divorce in December, two years after getting married outside Vancouver in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Papers filed in court do not say how the pair will divide their assets.
Ryan Reynolds was engaged to fellow Canadian Alanis Morissette for three years but they ended their relationship in February 2007.
The 34-year-old has recently appeared in the film adaptation of the DC comic The Green Lantern and has starred in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Proposal and Definitely, Maybe.
"This was a very difficult decision," the pair said in a statement. "We have come to an amicable conclusion."
The couple, who have three-year-old twin children, said "we appreciate the respect of our privacy".
Lopez, 41, and Anthony, 42, toured together and starred together in the 2006 film El Cantante.
The film was a biopic of Puerto Rican singer Hector Lavoe.
The divorce will be Lopez's third and Anthony's second.
They supported a conference motion calling on "discriminatory" barriers to equal marriage rights to be removed.
One delegate told the conference that existing legal distinctions between marriage and civil partnerships "taunted" people who were not married.
Although Lib Dem ministers support the move, it is unlikely to have an immediate impact on government policy.
The law is due to take effect in October if, as expected, it is approved by President George Abela. The prime minister voted against it.
Currently, Maltese people have to travel abroad to obtain divorces.
MPs passed the law by 52 votes to 11 with five abstentions and one absence, months after 53% of voters backed the reform in a referendum.
An Associated Press correspondent reports that the outcome in parliament is a crushing victory considering that most laws in Malta are passed by just one vote.
Separating parents can do their children enormous harm by using them as a "battlefield" and "ammunition", a senior family court judge has warned.
Sir Nicholas Wall, president of the Family Division of the High Court, said well-educated parents were particularly adept at using their children.
Sir Nicholas said a less adversarial approach was needed in the family justice system.
He made his comments in a speech to the charity Families Need Fathers.
ONE of Britain’s leading family lawyers, Baroness Deech, says that assets built up before a marriage should be excluded from divorce settlements.
Deech, the chairwoman of the Bar Standards Board, said the country should adopt European-style divorce laws to bring an end to bitter and expensive legal battles and to deter “gold diggers” from marrying for money.
Under the proposed overhaul, only assets — including cash and property —acquired during the marriage would be subject to the divorce settlement.
A former City banker turned biotechnology researcher faces financial ruin if his former wife wins her battle to bind him to a prenuptial contract, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.
Nicolas Granatino is challenging his £1 million divorce settlement with Katrin Radmacher, a German heiress said to be worth £100 million.
The case before nine Supreme Court justices will determine if divorcing couples in England and Wales should be bound by pre-marriage agreements on how their assets will be split.