You would think that life cannot get worse than when the local child welfare agency (sometimes called the Children’s Aid Society, or CAS) comes to your home and apprehends your children. Sadly, it can get worse, and often does. Not only can they take your children and limit any access you have to them, [...]
For those of you who are fans of the TV series “The Simpsons,” you will know that one of the characters, Helen Lovejoy, wife of Reverend Lovejoy, is often heard to bemoan the phrase “Please, Think of the Children.” In an animated comedy TV show, geared for older children and adults, we may laugh at [...]
At the beginning of any relationship, hope springs eternal, and the possibilities seem endless. There appears to be nothing that could get in the way of a perfect pairing. But for many people, that’s not how real-life works. Putting aside that over 50% of marriages end in divorce, and the [...]
When I first started practicing law in 1994, family law matters were dealt very differently than today. The court forms were simple and open-ended, but lawyers would fill them with very long, predictable, and inflammatory statements. Generally speaking, the successful party was the one who filed the court papers first. When we got to court, [...]
As we have reached the end of April, we would typically turn our minds to tax filings. But since the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has given us a bit of a reprieve from filing our tax returns by April 30 this year (given that it has been a different year, indeed), I thought it would [...]
In the early days of this COVID 19 Pandemic, some people in the legal profession thought that minor differences between former spouses and partners involved in family law disputes would go by the wayside, and people would focus on the bigger issues facing all of us in society, like our economic and personal survival. [...]
In my travels as a family law lawyer, I have seen the many challenges that both support recipients and support payors go through in dealing with the government agency known as the Family Responsibility Office, the FRO. It is a much-maligned agency, having started as “Support and Custody Order Enforcement” (SCOE) and then the [...]
As we enter a new year and a new decade, there are some who will enter a new relationship. For those who have been in family relationships before and they have not worked out, ending in divorce or separation, it is quite common to learn from the mistakes of the past. One of those [...]
As we approach the end of 2019 and start a new year, some people will resolve to separate from their current partner. Along with the usual issues of custody, access, support, and property division to consider, you also need to turn your mind to some urgent yet practical concerns. As we live in a [...]
As the calendar turns to December, many of us start thinking of the upcoming holidays. Even though the season is originally based on religious themes, many of the celebrations are secular and enjoyed by many in our diverse Canadian culture. One recurring theme that family law lawyers see in the courts at this time [...]
