This is a specialized sub-listing of our comprehensive Law Dictionary, where we've grouped terms relevant to this topic. If your word is not here, do ...
It may take a few minutes and a couple hundred bucks for two people to get married, but untying it in the wake of a permanent separation is a long, painful and expensive exercise. There's a reason they call it wedlock!
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.
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. 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.
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. This article looks at that area of family law, child protection.
Getting the government's records in a child protection case is vital not only to a parent-complainant but especially to a parent who is victim to an over-zealous or even vexatious complainant.
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 law as to the use of corrective force or corporal punishment by parents or educators is in a state of flux; under heavy bombardment by some, while reluctantly defended by others.
Even in the great Canadian Province of British Columbia, child custody and guardianship needs to be regulated, just in case... Maybe it's the rain?
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.
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.
Family mediation has all the promise of sustaining what can be sustained under difficult circumstances, a family legacy in the aftermath of separation between spouses, especially where children are concerned. But don't "go there" without reading this.
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.
Why get a divorce if you can get a marriage annulment ... and ... why get a marriage annulment if you can get a divorce!
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 ....
An rigid and cold slice of a knife equally through all matrimonial property can be unfair in some cases. In Canada, the statutes allow the Courts to tweak such a result, or to reapportion in some share other than 50 - 50.
What belongs to Jane and what belongs to John - post-separation - doesn't get any easier on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
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.
Egad! Here we go folks; that controversial topic of parental support; much written about but rarely argued and even more rarely ordered. But, since it’s in the law books...
With a high divorce rate, and older betrotheds, pre-nuptial agreements, or marriage agreements, are no longer distasteful. Historically, it wasn't cool for young lovers to even countenance irreconciable differences, let alone divorce. But today, unless you have a perfect match, a pre-nup is a great insurance policy.
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.
Spousal support claimants seem to be hung out to dry by the absence of clear judicial authority to impute income on a propective payor-spouse who is intentionally under-employed, or unemployed. Is there a way around this madness?
If you live in BC and are not married, you may be entitled to spousal support upon separation from your spouse under provincial family law legislation. Pitfalls abound such as minimal periods of cohabitation requirements, short deadlines in which to apply, and complex entitlement criteria.
Spousal support is a legal phenomena. 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? We propose legal heresy: an attempt to summarize spousal support and to do so in plain language.
It's not always easy to corral a child or spousal support payor. They can be slippery especially when the more determined of them realize that even if they do have a child support order against them which they don't want to pay, with the family maintenance agency breathing heavily on their neck, they can always go for the hail Mary pass to the end zone: an application to stay enforcement.
If you’ve ever dropped some oil into a glass of water, you’ll have an idea how compatible income tax and family law are. But get along they must as both are the children of the federal government and somewhere, in some Ottawa committee meeting, they’ve managed to come up with a wild myriad of rules to deal with overlap.
One steps into a step-parenting relationship usually with the best of loving and caring intentions. When or if one day - bang! - she's over and done with, well, she's ain't! The law recognizes step-parents and while entitling them to often not-wanted access rights, certainly does hold them to hefty child support obligations ... under certain very important conditions.
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.