Often, one issue parents need to tackle when they separate is what to do with the children’s RESPs. One or both parents may have contributed to such RESPs before the separation and now, decisions will need to be made about them. To begin with, I am going to identify an important issue related to RESPs, and that is the question of whether the balance in the account belongs to the subscriber parent or to the child. Case law is not consistent on this issue, meaning that judges have rendered different decision on this point. Some accept the idea that a trust is established, with the child being t ..read more

It is not uncommon for a person to be served with “court papers”, whether they already have a lawyer or not. This can happen in person, meaning that someone comes to your home or your place of work, and hands you an envelope or a document, but it can also happen by email in the case of some court documents. In this blog post, I am going to make some suggestions about what you should and should not do if this happens to you: 1.       The most important point I can make here is the following: DO NOT IGNORE being served or the documents’ contents. This service possi ..read more

YES! It is never too late to settle! In fact, Family Court judges encourage litigants to attempt mediation. I have been involved in many cases, both as a lawyer and as a family mediator, that commenced with the involvement of the court but ended up settling in family mediation. But why would they start with a court case in the first place? Why did these parties not try mediation first? These are commonly-asked questions and here are a couple of possible reasons: Initial counsel for the parties were not settlement-oriented ~ regrettable if that was the case. Many family law lawyers still def ..read more

    I am going to preface my general comments about pensions in family law by saying that the topic is quite complex, and I strongly encourage anyone interested in pensions to consult with a family lawyer to get proper legal advice. What I provide here is not legal advice, including because I do not know you, you are not my client and I have no information about your specific circumstances. To get case-specific advice, please speak to a family law lawyer. Part of the complexity of the subject-matter relates to the fact that pensions can be both an asset, in other words property to b ..read more

Effective communication can be quite challenging when we are stressed. It is often difficult to get across what we are trying to say, and even processing information coming in our direction can be a daunting. I very much identify with comments made by others about the experience of being in a stressful situation - it may feel like a tunnel and people talking to us sound like the adults in the Charlie Brown cartoons, saying “whah whah whah whah…” A person I know described holding a megaphone in front of their lips but no matter how loudly they shouted, their message simply was not coming out ..read more

Many, many married and common-law couples have joint accounts during their relationship. These accounts are commonly used to pay household expenses and in many instances, pre-authorized payments are made from the joint account on a regular basis, on behalf of the household, and for the personal expenses of each of the parties. On separation, some decisions will have to be made as to what to do with the joint account. There are rare instances where a separated couple may decide to maintain a joint account post-separation ~ this usually has to do with the way they elect to pay the children's ex ..read more

Over the years, I have observed an interesting phenomenon in society: on the one hand, people are understandably concerned about their privacy but on the other, they are more than happy to expose themselves, and what they would otherwise describe as their “private lives” by leaving their social media accounts open for the public to view, and by allowing their cell phones to track and record their every move…but that might be a topic for another blog post. In this post, I want to tackle the issue of privacy in the context of family law. Separated parents are often concerned about their privacy ..read more

The subject of travel with children (under the age of 18 in Ontario) comes up frequently in my work as both a family law lawyer and family mediator. That is because quite naturally, most separated parents want to enjoy traveling with the children and build new memories.  As a family law lawyer, I am often approached by my clients on this issue., either because they want to take a trip themselves or because the other parent does. At that point, we need to determine whether this will be a smooth exercise of simply filling out the required travel consent forms (more about this below) or whe ..read more

Many recently-separated parents wonder how to best tell their children about the separation. I receive many questions about this issue - whether parents should tell their children together, how much information should be provided to the children and how to actually do it. The answers to these questions are not altogether straightforward because they depend on a whole host of factors, including the circumstances of the separation, the children's ages and stages of development, as well as the degree to which the separated parents still get along. The best-case scenario is one that involves both ..read more

I read and write a lot about communication. We could not co-exist on this planet today, as humans, if we did not communicate with one another in some way, for better or worse. Effective communication can bring about incredible results – growth, learning, love, compassion, community and cooperation, to name just a few. I also truly believe that much of the strife we currently face as communities, faith groups and even races is rooted in problems with communication. Silence itself is a form of communication. It sends a message. But it is a signal rather than an invitation to a further considera ..read more