Meet Toronto’s Top Lawyers: Experience, Expertise and Excellence
Navigating legal matters can be challenging, but having the right lawyer by your side can make all the difference. With 500 lawyers recognized in this year’s Toronto’s Top Lawyers list, the city is home to exceptional legal talent across a wide range of specialties. This special feature offers a closer look at some of the legal professionals featured on this year’s list, highlighting their...
Can a Family Trust Protect Your Inheritance If Your Marriage Ends?
You may have heard of the terms “family trust” and “estate freeze” – especially if your family owns a business that’s been passed down through generations. These concepts are part of a common tax planning tool, the goal of which is to defer taxes. It’s particularly useful where an older family business owner wants to hand a successful enterprise down to an adult child. But people might assume...
What Are Your Rights After a Common-Law Breakup?
Every few months, a client or potential client comes to our Firm to ask some version of the same question: “We were never married. Can’t we just split up and walk away?” It’s a reasonable assumption. But under Ontario law, it’s an incorrect one. Ontario doesn’t recognize “common-law marriage” – only common-law relationships, with specific definitions in play. So, if you and your partner...
Law360: The Estate Freeze That Didn’t Shield a Family Fortune From Divorce
By Lorne J. Fine For decades, the estate freeze has been a staple of succession planning for Canadian business families. The mechanics are familiar to any tax or estate practitioner: the owner exchanges growth shares for fixed-value preferred shares, and a newly settled family trust subscribes for fresh common shares that will capture all future growth. The tax benefits are well understood....
Is There a Best Time of Year to File for Divorce?
If you’re thinking about ending your marriage, you may wonder whether there’s ever a “right” time to do it. After the holidays? When the kids finish the school year? Once your income tax return is filed? The courts in Ontario are open all year, so there’s no “season” when divorce is legally easier or harder to start. But timing still matters, just not in the way most...
Canadian Lawyer: Navigating the common-law property problem in family law
As couples across Canada increasingly choose to build lives together without plans to marry, some are finding ways to establish their legal rights and obligations regarding shared property in case they separate – even if they live in jurisdictions that guarantee property-division rights only to married spouses. That’s according to family law lawyers in Ontario, which is one of several...
Imputed Income: When the Court Decides What You “Should” Be Earning
When your relationship ends and child or spousal support is on the table for resolution, everything starts with one question: How much does each spouse or parent earn? It sounds simple. You’d think the answer is on your respective income tax returns. But in Family Law, the income a court uses to calculate support isn’t always the income each of you actually earns. Sometimes the...
What Happens at a Case Conference in Ontario Family Law?
If you’re going through a separation or divorce, your first real appearance before a family court judge will often be a Case Conference. It’s not a trial: There are no witnesses, and the judge isn’t there to make findings of fact. Instead, a Case Conference is meant to identify the issues, encourage settlement, confirm that information has been exchanged, and set out what...
Who Gets the Pet When You Separate? Your Questions, Answered
If you’re separating and share a dog, cat or other cherished pet with your partner, you may be wondering: Will my Ex and I be fighting for “pet custody”? How does the court decide? These are understandable questions, because most of us think of our pets as family members. (Or “fur babies”, as some people call them). But Canadian law sees pets very differently; they are not considered...