Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.  If you need legal advice with respect to child support or determining child support payments, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Toronto and Ottawa family law lawyers registered on Dynamic Lawyers who can offer information, advice, and assistance with respect to your child support matters.

As a follow up to my recent child support calculator blog (which dealt with Ontario and federal child support), I thought I’d discuss calculating child support in British Columbia.  Interestingly, the province of British Columbia has adopted the Federal Child Support Guidelines to determine child support obligations in that province.  It says so here: s. 1(2) of the B.C. Child Support Guidelines Regulation made under the Family Relations Act.   So here it is:

• British Columbia – this is a calculator provided by the British Columbia Family Maintenance Enforcement Program.  Please keep in mind that this websites may not be up-to-date and that you are always cautioned to consult with a family law lawyer who is apprised of the present law in British Columbia.

The key thing to keep in mind is trying to figure out what your income would be for the purposes of determining child support.  It’s not as easy or straightforward as one might think.  There are a number of steps that begin with looking at your last income tax return and making adjustments according to the Federal Child Support Guidelines.

The Federal Child Support Guidelines are regulations made under the Canada Divorce Act. The latter applies when parents are married and are now divorcing or formerly married and making a claim for child support.  If the parents are not divorcing or were not married at all, then child support would have to be calculated by the provincial jurisdiction’s relevant family law legislation.

In Ontario, for example, child support is determined according to the Family Law Act and the Ontario Child Support Guidelines.  The latter also has a table (as does the Federal Child Support Guidelines) that allows users to pinpoint what their child support obligations would be based on their income.

Again, it is encouraged to consult with a family law lawyer (e.g. by making a post on Dynamic Lawyers) before simply assuming that you know what your income would be under the applicable child support guidelines (and possibly relying on a free child support calculator to your detriment).

written by admin \\ tags: blog, british maintenance enforcement program, child support calculator, child support guidelines, child support obligations, child support payments, divorce act, family, family law lawyer, family law legislation, family maintenance enforcement, federal child support guidelines, law, lawyer, lawyers, maintenance enforcement program, ontario

There are over 17,000 individuals in Toronto who can call themselves a Toronto attorney.  Each Toronto attorney typically has his or her own specialty.  The day of the general practitioner is not as it once was (and is slowly fading away).  In fact, specialization is a preferred strategy to earn above-average returns in any given industry.  Besides, think of how hard it would be for a lawyer who ‘does it all’ to keep up to date with the changing laws in every given legal area.  It’s way too difficult and that’s where negligence cases may arise.

In any event, I thought I’d spend some time discussing the various types of Toronto attorneys that you can come across on a day-to-day basis.  Here’s the first breakdown of types of Toronto attorneys (please keep in mind that this list of the types of lawyers out there is not exhaustive):

• Toronto Real Estate Attorneys: help you buy and sell residential, investment, farm, cottage, recreational, condominium, and cooperative properties.  They also you get a mortgage financing and refinancing as well.

• Toronto Personal Injury Attorneys: help you litigate, settle, or otherwise resolve claims arising from:
  • accident benefits claims
  • dog bites
  • disability claims
  • medical malpractice
  • motor vehicle accidents
  • negligence actions
  • personal injury claims
  • product liability
  • slip and falls

• Toronto Business Attorneys: help you to incorporate and organize, merge/amalgamate, and dissolve your business.  They can help prepare, review, interpret, revise, negotiate, litigate, and resolve the following business documents:
  • shareholder agreement
  • partnership agreement
  • joint venture agreement
  • franchise agreement
  • commercial leases
  • business acquisitions
  • regulatory compliance
  • constructions contracts
  • employment agreements

• Toronto Wills and Estates Attorneys: they offer services from a basic will and powers of attorney  to more complicated tax-planning structures, such as inter-vivos trusts and estates freezes.  They can also help personal representatives in the administration and distribution of estate assets.  Finally, they can litigate on behalf of beneficiaries or the estate trustee on issues such as mental capacity of the testator, validity of a will, etc.

• Toronto Family Attorneys: they can help you with your marriage breakup by drafting a separation agreement.  They can also help you with issues such as divorce, spousal and child support, child custody, possession of the matrimonial home, and the equalization of net family property.
  

• Toronto Criminal Defense Attorneys: they can help represent you against government bodies that have charged you with criminal or provincial offences (e.g. careless driving), including:
  • DUI (driving under the influence)
  • assault
  • sexual assault
  • fraud
  • theft

written by admin \\ tags: accident, accidents, agreement, attorneys, beneficiaries, business, business acquisitions, commercial leases, contracts, criminal, custody, defense, Dynamic Lawyers, family, franchise agreement, fraud, incorporation, incorporators, injuries, injury, investment farm, joint venture toronto personal actions, law, lawyer, lawyers, liabilities, litigants, litigation, marriage, mentality, negligence, negligence cases, negotiating, Negotiations, offence, partnership, personal injury claims, practitioner, preferred strategy, property, revisions, separation, shareholder, shareholders, shareholdings, testator, toronto, toronto attorney, toronto attorneys, toronto business, toronto real estate, Wills and Estates

Toronto law firms can help answer your legal questions, facilitate your transaction (e.g. business, real estate, wills and estates, family, etc.) or even represent you in court.  To find a Toronto lawyer or law firm, go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post.  It’s free and anonymous and Toronto lawyers and law firms will respond to you with information and quotes for you to compare.

Here are some of the different types of law that Toronto law firms can assist you in:

• Accidents and Injuries: Involved in an accident where you suffered personal injury?
• Business: Need corporate or commercial agreements? Need to have a lawyer help you do a transaction?
• Charities and Not-For-Profit: Need to establish a Not-For-Profit corporation or obtain charity status?
• Civil Litigation – Higher Court: Have a serious legal claim that needs to be litigated in the Superior Court, Divisional Court, etc.?
• Civil Litigation – Small Claims Court: Have a legal claim (e.g. breach of contract, negligence, etc.) for less than $10,000?
• Constitutional / Human Rights and Freedoms: Challenging a law or government action / inaction?
  Criminal: Charged with a criminal offence? Appealing a conviction?
• Employment and Labour: Need an employment agreement? Unjustly terminated? Need to know your rights?
• Family: Going through a separation or divorce? Fighting to get custody or access? Dealing with spousal and child support?
• Government: Need to lobby the government? Need to resolve a dispute with a government agency?
• Highway Traffic Tickets: Charged with speeding or DUI? Need to fight traffic tickets?
• Immigration: Need to immigrate to Canada? Fighting against deportation?
• Insurance: Having difficulties with your Insurance company?.
• Intellectual Property: Need to register a copyright or trademark? Need help with a patent?
• Landlord and Tenant: Need a resolve a dispute? Need to know your rights?.
• Notary Public / Commissioner: Need to notarize or commission your documents?
• Real Estate: Need someone to facilitate your residential or commercial purchase, sale, or lease?
• Tax: Need help structuring your tax affairs? Need help resolving tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency?
• Wills, Estates and Trusts: Need a will? Need to update your will? Find out why having an up-to-date will is a must.

Try to consult with a couple of Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys until you’re comfortable with whom you’re speaking with.  Toronto law firms differ in size, location, expertise, and reputation.  Go to Dynamic Lawyers and save time and money finding the right Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys who specialize in the legal area you require!

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Toronto Attorneys and Toronto Lawyers: go to Dynamic Lawyers to make a post of your legal issue(s) and have Toronto Attorneys and Toronto Lawyers respond with information and quotes.

What’s the difference between “Attorney”  and “Lawyer”?  Well, in Ontario, people who have studied law in law school, passed the Bar Admissions test, and have been called to the Bar of Ontario are called different things to different people.  The Law Society of Upper Canada calls them licensees.  In court, judges call them counsel.  Their clients call them their lawyer or attorney.  And they call themselves barristers and solicitors.  So what do all of these things mean?  Basically, they all come to mean the same thing, with a few minor comments about the differences between a barrister and solicitor.

A lawyer is the normal thing we call persons learned in the law and licensed to practice law.  An attorney works too, but this is more Americanized for some reason (at least in my humble experience).  Counsel means the same thing as a lawyer or attorney, but is used less often – lest some people confuse the lawyer with some type of counselor or consultant (unless the term legal counsel is used).

The distinction between a barrister and a solicitor is interesting and worthy of a few words here.  Toronto attorneys are both capable of calling themselves barristers and solicitors.  In other jurisdictions, lawyers may be one or the other but not both.  The word barrister, in its deep-rooted English traditions, comes from those who are called to bar and who advocate for their clients before courts and tribunals.  This is to be distinguished from solicitors, who typically are engaged by clients to do contractual work and facilitate transactions (e.g. business, real estate, wills and estates, family, etc.).

For more information about the differences between barristers and solicitors, check out what Wikipedia has to say.

written by admin \\ tags: attorneys, bar admissions, barrister and solicitor, barristers and solicitors, court, courts and tribunals, engagements, family, judges, jurisdiction, law, law society of upper canada, lawyer, lawyers, ontario barristers, quotes, s, toronto, toronto attorneys, toronto lawyers, toronto yers, wikipedia

The Do’s

As a family lawyer I’ve seen lots of families work to adjust to a new life with two households. It’s hard for everyone but kids really need help to adjust to their new reality. Here are 11 do’s and don’ts that you can use to help your kids adjust:

1. Do take care of yourself! This is the most important tip for you. Divorce is hard; it is easy to let good habits slide. Make yourself eat well, try to get enough sleep, and call a friend to schedule something fun to do. Better yet, call 3 friends and schedule 3 fun things to do.

2. Do encourage your kids to love your former partner and encourage their relationship with him or her, no matter how difficult that is. Kids want contact and love from both of their parents. Prompt them to call him or her and let them have a decent amount of time with him or her, including precious holiday time so they can see their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins from the other side of the family.

3. Do reassure your kids that they are not to blame. Sometimes kids feel responsible for the family breakdown. Also explain that while adult love may die, your love for them will not die.

4. Do live close to your ex if at all possible. You may wish the ex would move to Timbuktu so that you’d never see him or her again, but the exact opposite is what’s best for your kids. If they forget their homework or their skates or their favourite sweater, this can be a big problem if you live far apart or even across town. But if you live a couple of blocks apart, it’s easy for them (or you) to pop over and pick up the forgotten item. It also means that if the kids want to come say hi to you when they are with the other parent, it’s no big deal. They can just ride their bike over for a few minutes. It’s hard to overstate how good it is for kids to have ease of movement between their homes.

5. Do maintain basic communication with your ex-spouse. It teaches your kids a lot about being civil even in difficult circumstances and it will make your life easier. Some basic examples:

• It makes organizing access and coordinating schedule changes much easier if you can email or phone each other
• It helps you coordinate gift-giving. If you’re not talking to your ex, odds are pretty high you’ll both give one of the kids the same gift at Christmas or on a birthday
• It prevents the kids from playing the two of you off against each other
• It makes it easier to ask for a favour when you need it. And you will need them when you’re sick, have a family emergency, need to travel for business, want to go to your high school reunion or – here’s hoping – want to go on a romantic get-away with a new love.

6. Do spend special time alone with each child. Creating these happy moments and memories is especially precious to them when their family is breaking up.

And now the don’ts:

7. Don’t let your kids hear you criticizing their other parent. They will feel conflicted and, eventually, very resentful if you criticize someone they love. If you need to vent, take it to your adult friends when the kids can’t hear.

8. Don’t press your kids for information about what goes on when they are with your ex. That is their time with him or her. If they want to tell you about it they will but otherwise let them enjoy their relationship without feeling like you are scrutinizing it.

9. Don’t use your kids as confidants and don’t let your kids become your caregiver. Divorce is hard; when you need help, ask the adults in your life. And remember – most people like to help.

10. Don’t ask your children how they want to divide their holidays, how much they want to see their other parent or any other question that forces them to choose between their parents . You and your ex are the parents; it’s your job to make those decisions.

11. And finally, don’t over-indulge your kids. This may be tempting because of guilt about the separation or because an unhealthy competition develops with your ex-spouse about who has the best toys or who takes the kids on the best trips. Don’t fall into this trap. Kids need limits.

It may be hard to do all this but if you try, your kids will benefit. Good luck!

written by Ingrid van Weert \\ tags: adjusting to separation and divorce, family, Family Law, lawyers, opposition, parents, relationships, separation

For most people there is nothing that can take the romance out of an engagement faster than the request for a marriage contract. Somehow marriage contracts seem inconsistent with the commitment that is the essence of marriage. However, sometimes a marriage contract may be a good idea.

A marriage contract defines rights and obligations during marriage or on separation, divorce or death. In the absence of a contract, these rights and obligations are governed by the family law legislation in effect in Ontario. Because it must be applied to many different fact situations, the legislation is not tailor-made. It also gives a lot of discretion to judges, making it quite unpredictable on occasion. Many different judges, with many different points of view, hear family law cases. Finally, the legislation can change. Ontario has had two major revisions of its family law legislation since 1978. The laws that would govern your rights if you were to divorce today may not be the laws that will govern your rights if you divorce in the future.

A marriage contract permits couples to design a tailor-made result rather than being governed by legislation. They may do this because the legislation does not seem fair to them, because it does not suit their needs or because they want to try to avoid litigation if the marriage ends. Seen in this light, marriage contracts are not cynical; they are simply a tool couples use to define and tailor their rights.

For instance…

There are many reasons to contract out of the legislation. In general terms, and subject to some important exceptions, the legislation provides that spouses jointly share their net increase in wealth from the date of marriage to the date of separation or death. If one spouse is very wealthy at the time of the marriage, the legislation could result in a windfall to the other spouse. Through a marriage contract the spouses could agree to an unequal division in the increase in wealth. This does not mean the poorer spouse gets nothing; the spouses can negotiate a fair result. For instance, they could agree that the property division would vary depending on the number of years the marriage lasts.

A couple may also wish to contract out of the property provisions of the legislation if they are both financially independent and don’t want any claim to the other’s assets, or if either spouse has children from a previous marriage. In the latter case a marriage contract can ensure that the majority of the spouses’ assets goes to his or her children and not to the second spouse. As in the first example, this does not mean that the spouse is treated unfairly; the marriage contract can balance the interests of the spouse with the interests of the children.

Marriage contracts do not need to be signed before the marriage. They can be negotiated at any time. Sometimes they actually help couples in trouble make their marriage work. If a couple has experienced troubles in their marriage they may want a marriage contract going forward. Being clear about what would happen if a relationship ends (ie. knowing you will be treated fairly) can help some couples rebuild the trust they need to stay together.

What cannot be contracted

One large advantage marriage contracts have over legislation is flexibility – they can deal with one issue or asset or many issues and all assets. With the exceptions noted below, the potential terms of a marriage contract are limited only by the imagination. However, marriage contracts cannot deal with custody of or access to children or a spouses’ rights to possession of the matrimonial home. Further, any provisions in a marriage contract relating to the support, education or moral training of a child may be disregarded by a court if it believes the provision is not in the child’s best interest.

Cohabitation agreements

The law in Ontario also recognizes cohabitation agreements. People who are living together, or who intend to live together, may enter into a contract outlining their rights and obligations during or after their cohabitation, or on death. Cohabitation agreements are often a very good idea because the law in Ontario does not do much to protect the property rights of common law spouses. If you are in a common law relationship it would probably be a very good idea to define your property rights by contract. However, these contracts must be drafted carefully because unless it provides otherwise, a cohabitation agreement becomes a marriage contract if the parties marry each other.

In short, if your partner proposes a marriage contract or a cohabitation agreement don’t assume it means they don’t love you as much as they should. There are lots of times such contracts make sense. In fact, you may want to consider one yourself.

___________

Ingrid van Weert is a compassionate and dedicated family lawyer with extensive experience in both divorce law and in all forms of dispute resolution available in the divorce process – negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation. She can be reached at ingrid@ontariodivorcelaw.ca or at 416-214-1501.

written by Ingrid van Weert \\ tags: agreement, arbitration, cohabitation Family Law, contracts, court, custody, engagements, fairness, family, judges, lawyer, lawyers, litigants, litigation, major, marriage, mediator, negotiating, Negotiations, relationships, revisions, separation, what to include in a marriage contract

One of the most common and most damaging misconceptions I hear as a family lawyer is the idea that people in common law relationships have the same legal rights as married spouses do. No, no, no! If you’re in a common law relationship and think you have the same rights as if you were married, you’re wrong. And that mistake could cost you very dearly if your relationship ends.

At the end of a relationship, whether marriage or common law, the five main issues are custody of children, visitation rights for the non-custodial parent, child support, spousal support and division of property. There are many other issues that may come up as well – possession of the matrimonial home, life insurance, immigration status, wills and powers of attorney to name a few – but those are the big five.

In the first three categories there is not much difference between being married and living common law. The law tries to treat all children equally so the rights of children born in common law relationships are generally the same as those born into marriages. However, when it comes to spousal support and dividing property accumulated during a relationship there are very important differences between marriage and common law relationships.

Spousal support

If you are married you can claim spousal support under either the Divorce Act or under the Family Law Act. If you cohabit you don’t have spousal support rights under the Divorce Act. And the difference between the rights of married spouses and the rights of common law spouses under the Family Law Act is apparent right in the definition of spouse. A married spouse is a spouse – and hence has spousal support rights – from the instant they are married. A person is not even considered a spouse in a common law relationship unless they have been cohabiting continuously for three years or they are in a relationship of some permanence and are the natural or adoptive parents of a child. In other words, at the end of a common law relationship you can’t even seek spousal support unless you cohabited for more than three years or you and your partner have a child together.

Property rights

The difference in spousal support rights is minor compared to the difference in property rights between married and common law spouses. This is where I see people seriously hurt by the common assumption that the law treats married couples and common law couples equally.

In Ontario the Family Law Act gives married spouses very specific property rights; it does not give any property rights to common law spouses. A common law spouse can assert a property claim under a doctrine called constructive trust but these claims are difficult and costly to prove and are far less generous than the rights given to married spouses by the Family Law Act. In other words, if you let your partner put all or most of the property in his or her name in a common law relationship you may find he or she gets to keep it all, even if your income and work helped buy it.

The lesson in this is that if you live in a common law relationship you must make sure that you accumulate property in your own name. Don’t let all property go into the name of your spouse on the assumption that if your relationship ends, the property will be divided between you. That is not how the law works for common law relationships. Another solution is to enter into a cohabitation agreement setting out how property will be divided if the relationship ends. But please don’t assume you have the same property rights as your married friends.

Ingrid van Weert is a compassionate and dedicated family lawyer with extensive experience in both divorce law and in all forms of dispute resolution available in the divorce process – negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation. She can be reached at ingrid@ontariodivorcelaw.ca or at 416-214-1501.

written by Ingrid van Weert \\ tags: agreement, arbitration, common law, continuings, custody, damages, family, insurance, lawyer, lawyers, litigants, litigation, marriage, mediator, negotiating, Negotiations, parents, property rights, relationships, spousal support