Barriston Law (LexBlog Canada)

By Douglas J. Manning, Partner, Certified Specialist in Family Law Yes!  But why would you want to? While not exactly bigamy, it is possible to have more than one spouse at the same time.  If you are separated from your spouse to whom you are still married, you are still legal spouses in the eyes...

Barrie Hayes, Partner, Family Law Statistics Canada has recently released an analytical paper addressing parenting and child support after separation or divorce. Highlights of the paper are as follows: In 2011, approximately 5,000,000 Canadians had separated or divorced within the last 20 years. Of these, about one quarter currently had at least one child aged...

Thomas Dart, Partner, Family Law The Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters has published its report on Family Justice.  This committee was convened at the invitation of the Chief Justice of Canada, the Honorable Beverly McLachlan and is chaired by Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell.  It addresses the concern of...

Kim Kieller, Partner In the mid-1990s there were serious concerns in regard to child support.  Firstly, child support was still taxable in the recipient’s hands and deductible by the payor.  This lead to a  great deal of controversy and a hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada in regard to the constitutionality of the Income...

Catherine Hyde, Family Law Clerk In the movies there always seems to be one spouse trying to get the other to sign the “divorce papers” so that they can get remarried. Think “Sweet Alabama”. In Canada, our procedures are somewhat different. There are two streams for divorces. It is either an Uncontested Divorce in which...

By Douglas J. Manning, Partner, Certified Specialist in Family Law In an earlier blog post written by Lori Aylwin in January 2011 she discussed the tax treatment for legal fees and accounting fees incurred for the purposes of establishing or collecting child and/or spousal support. Lori’s article succinctly pointed out what needs to be established...

Catherine Hyde Family Law Clerk We often receive telephone calls from clients wondering whether we have a paralegal in our family department that can be retained as opposed to a lawyer, as a cheaper option of resolving their family disputes. The Law Society of Upper Canada began regulating paralegals in May, 2007.  This means that...

There was recently a flurry of news coverage in Canada: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1060078 and internationally: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-15074776  reporting that a missing little girl from Manchester UK had been found in Quebec. The little girls’ story is a sad one, though similar tales have become more familiar and more widely reported in recent years. Pearl...

In Ontario, there has been much discussion in the media and amongst various legal groups about ‘access to justice’ and how, in particular, the high cost of litigation prevents people from ‘accessing the justice system’.  Recently, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Chief dealt with this issue in her remarks at the...

Married spouses in Ontario, and the other provinces, have enshrined legislated rights on how their rights and interests in property are determined in the event of a separation.  There is a specific formula that sets out each spouse’s monetary entitlement upon separation, with a few specific exceptions. Unlike married spouses, unmarried partners have no such...

The RESP can be invested in government and corporate bonds, GICS and stocks and in mutual funds. The RESP contributions are supplemented by the Canada Savings Education Grant, which is a federal program that deposits up to $500.00 per year directly into the RESP. Although the RESP contributions are not tax deductible the tax payable...

My husband has learned to tune-out my complaints when we watch popular programs such as Law & Order or other legal-based dramas.  I am sure that I am not alone in my frustration with the misleading idea that any legal system, be it American or Canadian, can resolve issues as quickly as they do on...