When the parents of a child separate, they must make decisions about where the child should live on a day-to-day basis. Many parents prefer some form of “shared parenting” which usually means that each parent has day-to-day care of the child at least 40% of the time. However, shared … [Read more...]
What COVID-19 Caselaw Tells Us about Parenting
This column is coming out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health authorities across Canada, and the world, have issued protocols for limiting the spread of the virus. Many family courts are only hearing “urgent” matters.The court has heard cases during this time that speak to a specific set of … [Read more...]
The Legal Status of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines
The Divorce Act sets out the factors that a judge considers when ordering one ex-partner to pay spousal support (also knows as “partner support” or “spousal maintenance”) to the other ex-partner. The factors in provincial family law legislation that applies to unmarried couples, such as Alberta’s … [Read more...]
Do Books Relieve Children’s Pain During Divorce?
Families are no longer as secure as they used to be. The process of divorce and separation can deeply affect children, as can exposure to new types of family structures. Children may feel stressed, frustrated and confused.When parents separate or divorce, children may:have difficulties … [Read more...]
DBS v SRG: Retroactive child support claims
20/20: Looking back over the last 20 yearsI was not short of choices when LawNow asked me to write about one of the most important family law cases in the last twenty years. After consulting with Sarah Dargatz, my fellow columnist on family law issues, I decided to talk about DBS v SRG, a … [Read more...]
From the Trenches of High-Conflict Family Litigation
Never have I ever: set out to engage in high-conflict family litigation. And when I say high-conflict, I mean cases where the parties can’t put their own emotions aside to make good decisions for themselves and their children. Somehow, though, it finds me. Time and again I have tried to minimize the … [Read more...]
Shared Custody Parenting: Income Tax Issues
Since the introduction of the Federal Child Support Guidelines (FCSG) in 1997, custody arrangements have affected child support obligations for Canadian parents. The greatest flexibility applies to “shared custody” situations. Under the FCSG, a child is in shared custody where each parent “exercises … [Read more...]
Alternatives to Court: Parenting Coordination
This is the last column in LawNow’s series on resolving family law disputes out of court. The other columns in this series include Sarah Dargatz’s articles on collaborative negotiation and mediation, and my article on arbitration. In this column, I’m going to talk about parenting coordination. This … [Read more...]
Alternatives to Court: Mediation
In the first column in this series, John-Paul Boyd introduced basic alternatives to resolving family law disputes in court. In the second column, I wrote about the Collaborative process. In the last issue, John-Paul Boyd explained arbitration. In this column, I’m going to talk about … [Read more...]
Alternatives to Court: Arbitration
In our first column in this series, I introduced the basic alternatives to resolving family law disputes in court – negotiation, mediation and arbitration – and talked about some of the surprising research on lawyers’ views about litigation. In the second column, Sarah Dargatz wrote about … [Read more...]
