One stop-shop for legal information on an essential but also sad area of the law as it is inevitably raised in the emotionaly difficult aftermath of a family breakdown.
Abortion is not a crime in Canada. But it is an area of the law where, beyond that simple fact, the waters are very murky. In a nutshell, the Supreme Court of Canada said that the section of the Criminal Code which made abortion a crime was of no force or effect so it is as if that section did not exist. The Supreme Court can overrule Parliament when the latter's laws are incompatible with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That was the case here.
To adopt or not to adopt ... is never the question for those wonderful people who seek to take care of another's child. This article takes a bird's eye view of the law of adoption in Canada.
When is a child no longer a child? For how long must a separated Dad or Mom pay child support for their adult child, especially when the "child" is into his or her twenties and has a part-time job?
Adultery occurs when a married person has sex with a person other than his or her spouse. It is a ground for divorce.
Affidavits, aka sworn statement or written depositions, are the more frequent type of evidence used by our courts. While they do have their limitations and cannot be used in all hearings, affidavit evidence considerably reduces the time requirements of any justice system. But preparing affidavits is an art, not a science. Proceed with caution (and read this article).
You're running off to Court on a spousal or child support arrears case and ... and ... and ... damn! This is no time for idle chatter! Quick! A computer search ... greatest hits ... case law ... arrears ... presto!
The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction may be one of the most important international treaties, with its far-reaching arms, allowing the prompt return of children wrongfully abducted to another country.
Hear ye, hear ye! Under the authority of years of legal training, I hereby and herein share with all Canadians the Twenty-Three Commandments of Child Custody under the Divorce Act. Contrary to the Ten Commandments of Moses, we must caution readers that the following was not taken from Mount Sinai so it is not infallible
To a parent, the worst thing that can happen is to lose a child. At the same time, there are no mandatory parenting skill courses required to getting pregnant. Inevitably, therefore, with some parents, the safety of a child is at risk and the government has to step in and wrest of the child from the bosom of its mother. Once child protection gets involved in the life of the child, a long, sometimes patronizing and "difficult to shake" relationship can be imposed upon the parents, all only to keep the child safe. This article looks at that area of family law, child protection.
Imputing income in a child support case requires the best of "Solomon" from our judges as the application pits the interests of one family member, a child support payor, against that of another, often a child.
Every parent has a duty to support their child to their age of majority or, if still in school, to a further extent. Simple rule but where that goes in each case is often unknown until judgment is pronounced.
Cohabitation between two persons in a loving relationship, likely intimate, stirs the interest of the law as it resembles marriage ... but not quite!
The
rules for granting
custody
does not vary a great deal from province to province. Nor are they substantially
different from the rules given under the
Divorce Act (see the
Twenty-Three Commandments of Child Custody
under the Canadian Divorce Act). Some of the custody and
access principles under the
Divorce
Act which also apply, for the most part, in guardianship hearings
under the
Family
Relations Act ("
FRA") include
preservation
of the status quo,
non-separation
of siblings, the "
tender
years doctrine", the
non-relevance
of conduct issues, and the guidelines to be followed when
a
custodial parents wants to move.
In many child custody and access cases before the Court, lawyers, litigants, judges and children are usually assisted – or not – by a custody and access assessment done but by a third-party professional. This article explains the process and tells you what to look out for.
Difficult divorce: Mrs. Jacqueline Mazurette, to be Ms at a price.
There is a running joke between family law lawyers that it may take a few minutes and a couple hundred bucks for two people to get married, but untwining it in the wake of a permanent separation is a long, painful and expensive exercise. There's a reason they call it "wedlock". The word "divorce" conjures up images of emotional and financial trauma, and rightfully so. This article looks at this difficult legal topic.
When a profoundly settled unit such as the family, comprised of adults once completely committed to each other, and the fruit of that commitment, children, explodes into an irreconcilable dispute, the fallout is devastating. The lives of each participant is forever changed. This, in the best of times. Add litigation and the mixture turns toxic. This article reviews options other than litigation that are available to separating spouses.
The term "family violence" appears, at first glance, to be the ultimate oxymoron. And yet is a horrible reality of family law: fathers, mothers, children and relatives strike, hit, assault and abuse each other. It is not commonplace but when it rears its ugly head, the fallout is toxic to the body and soul. The law acts quickly like a fire station and may douse the flames but cannot rebuild the home.
Financial statements are essential elements in the resolution of family law and divorce disputes, as they are the most important evidence in resolving spousal or child support and matrimionial property rights. And with everything else in the law, there's a right way and a wrong to do things.
Family law has nothing on America's intelligentsia talkshow host, Jerry Springer. Family law law books were the first to expose the intimate and sometimes funny personal details of litigants to the public, but - and no offence, Jerry - all in the name of advancing the law. This is ... drum roll please .. Canada's Greatest Hits of Family Law Cases.
Marriage is a contract between two persons to live tigether as a family. That's where the simple information ends and the legalese takes over ....
The primary law in British Columbia which resolves matrimonial property disputes is Part 3 of the B.C. Family Relations Act (FRA), which came into force in 1979. The rights of B.C. spouses to matrimonial property in B.C. under the FRA are in addition to any other rights that they may have under other common law or statutes (see, for example, discussion in Matrimonial Property in Canada - A Primer).
Canada. Land of snow, hockey Ontario and Victoria, BC! But also where, as elsewhere, those hard-to-shake contracts - called "marriages" - occasionally fall apart and husband and wife must be disentangled. This articles gives you new perspective on this timeless problem.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder ... and the law crazy! Rudderless property and rights create slow but certain havoc, a confusing state of affairs that the law remedies.
Québec stands out in Canada as the only jurisdiction dedicated to the codification of all its laws. Now,
circa 2007, all provinces have "codified" their laws in a set of "Revised Statutes". While Québec too, has a set of topical "revised statutes", it alone has published a one-stop-shop compendium of "common law",
le tres chic Civil Code.
If you live in Canada and are not married, you may be entitled to spousal support upon separation from your spouse under provincial family law legislation (such as the Family Law Act in Ontario or the Family Relations Act in BC). Pitfalls abound such as minimal periods of cohabitation requirements, short deadlines in which to apply, and complex entitlement criteria. In this aticle, we wrestle all three to the ground and give you la piece de resistance: paté a la spousal support in British Columbia.
Spousal support is a legal phenomena. To the uneducated-eye, it appears to be the only place in the "law" where you can get "money for nothing". Where else can you shack up with someone and then after a period of time, bang the table and get an enforceable order for regular cash payments form the former roommate? Spousal support has been theorized to death (see, for example, one of many Canadian Supreme Court decisions on topic such as Moge v Moge) so we propose herein, legal heresy: an attempt to summarize spousal support and to do so in plain language.
They can't vote, drink beer or drive a car. Sometimes, when their parents separate or divorce, they are not even heard on the issue most dear to them: whether they live with Mom or Dad. But it's not all gloom and doom. Kids can get a say albeit much can depend on which trial judge their parents draw.