Adult Children (ie. over the age of 18 yrs) are only entitled to child support if they are dependents as defined by the Divorce Act and the Family Law Act. An adult child is entitled to child support if he/she is “enrolled in a full time program of education”. Various court decisions have held that it is not sufficient for the adult child to simply be enrolled in school on a...
Common Law Spouses are defined as those couples that are not married and have a child or have resided together in a relationship for three years or more. (more…)
There is a recent decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal, Webb v. Birkett, wherein the court held that Family Law Lawyers, whether engaged in mediation, the collaborative law process, or any other process, has a duty to obtain full and complete financial disclosure, unless the client, being properly informed, waives the requirement. The Court of Appeal held that it is the duty of every lawyer...
This is a difficult issue for a lot of payors. However, a party has to recognize that a marriage is a partnership. Once the partnership breaks down one party may have to compensate the other party. (more…)
This section provides that in determining a person’s income for child support purposes, you must look at the total income until line 150 in a person’s Income Tax Return and adjust the income as required by Schedule III to the Guidelines. (more…)
This section of the Guidelines provides that a court may “award an amount that is different from the amount determined under the Guidelines, if the court finds that the spouse making the request, or a child in respect of whom the request is made, would otherwise suffer undue hardship”. Although the Guidelines does not specifically define “undue hardship”, the court...
This section addresses the situation when a spouse “exercises a right of access to, or has physical custody of, a child for not less than 40% of the time over the course of a year”. (more…)
Split custody is when each parent has custody of one or more of the children. The Act provides that the “amount of a child support order is the difference between the amount that each spouse would otherwise pay if a child support order was sought against each of the spouses”. (more…)
This section provides for the payor to pay additional monies to the recipient, over and above base child support, to “cover all or any portion” of the “special or extraordinary expenses” for the child. The preamble of section provides that the expenses may be “estimated”. However, it is my experience that if you are seeking contribution for past...
This section permits the court to award a quantum of support that is different than as set out in the Guidelines if the payor is not the biological father of the child. After their relationship with the biological parent ends, although some step-parents may try to terminate their relationship with a child in order to avoid a child support obligation, their efforts will likely not be...
