Well, lately there is more of a movement towards not going to court and if you think about it, the reason why people actually go to court is because they have a problem. In Family Law, people go to court because they have a problem with their spouse and they want to have certain rights determined by a judge. …
What does the law say about alimony, which by the say we call spousal support. So the law says this, if a person was economically dependent upon another spouse during the relationship and then after the relationship ends the person needs that spouse’s contributions in order to live, in order to maintain a standard of living then that person, that provider will have to continue providing. …
Mediation has been around for many many years but why it’s growing is because a lot of the mediators who used to do it before are offering to do even something more than just mediating. They’re offering to actually to be the hired judge. …
One of the jobs that lawyers have, whether they are working in a collaborative situation or in a court situation or just having the client in the office, when we as lawyers have a client in the office, and everybody by the way who’s going through a separation or divorce is anxious, is nervous, is worried about their present and future situation. …
The actual law in Ontario [Canada] says that a child’s views and preferences, if they can be ascertained are a factor to be determined when it comes to custody and access rights. So there is a long list of factors, one of which is the child’s views and preferences. …
And in the field of Family Law, the concept of collaborative is to be compared to the opposite word which is adversarial. So the legal system is adversarial. Two people come to court with lawyers, one makes one argument, the other makes a contrary argument and you hope that the judge will find the truth somewhere in the middle and make a decision. Whereas in Collaborative Law, …
From the time that the recent child support guidlines changed, so some time in the late 1990’s, I believe around 1997-98, at that time the law changed so it said that if a person had the children 40% of the time or more they can ask for a reduction of their child support obligation. So what ended up happening with that change in law was a lot of people …
Yours is a situation where you have to have a resolution to your affairs and just because you think, or she threatens to “take you to the cleaners”, that may simply be an idle threat. That might be a threat to cause you to be a bit more generous than what you would otherwise have to be according to the …
… and at the very begining of the agreement, it usually says something like, “this agreement is a full and final settlement of all of your legal affairs.” And then it lists what those issues are, whether it’s the children or property issues, and so forth. …
If a couple gets together, and on the date of marriage, the husband is worth $10 and the wife was worth $0, and they were together for 20 years. And on the date of separation the husband has gone from being worth $10 to $25. What do we split $25 or $15? The answer is the growth. $15. The husband writes the wife a cheque for …
