Family Court Resumes In-Person Hearings

August 22, 2022

In Ottawa, most family court hearings are returning to ‘in-person’ hearings as of August, 2022, except for certain types of procedural appearances. Unless permission has been obtained from the court, case conferences, settlement conferences, Motions and trials, are now going to be conducted in-person at the courthouse. Trial scheduling conferences will continue to be conducted…

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Recent Cases Involving Self Represented Litigants

August 22, 2022

There continue to be developments in the caselaw on self represented parties. While judges have a special duty to ensure that a self represented party has every reasonable opportunity to present their case, this doesn’t mean that a judge is responsible for their case, or that measures must be taken in order to correct the…

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Spousal Support - Kerry Fox Family Law

Spousal support, also known by the American term ‘alimony’, refers to ongoing maintenance given to a spouse which is either for an indefinite, or fixed, term.
Spousal support is not automatic. If two individuals make similar incomes, spousal support is not likely to be relevant since both parties will already enjoy equivalent standards of living post separation.

Often, however, there is a large discrepancy in incomes between spouses, particularly where there has been one primary breadwinner during the marriage. This income disparity might be temporary- for instance, the non-working spouse might be able to retrain for an occupation and then become employed in that occupation within a few years after separating. Significant discrepancies in income may be more long term, or permanent.

If a spouse has been out of the workforce for a lengthy period of time and they are ending a long term relationship, they might have limited ability to support themselves financially. In such cases, indefinite spousal support may be appropriate, depending upon the payor’s continued ability to pay support. Although spousal support is meant to encourage the parties to become financially independent within a certain period of time, long term marriages are more likely to result in spousal support awards of longer duration.

Long term, or indefinite, spousal support will often require ongoing negotiations between the parties as the payor’s ability to pay support changes. It’s not unusual that as someone gets older, that he or she isn’t able to earn the same level of income as they previously had. Whether a payor suffers from poor health, or their career opportunities decline because of slumps in the economy or their industry, payors are entitled to reduce the amount of spousal support to the extend that their ability to pay has declined.

Because of the difficulty in predicting whether and to what extent a payor will have an ongoing ability to pay support in the future, there are benefits to a recipient taking spousal support as a lump sum upon separation.

Unlike child support, the quantification of spousal support obligations is not straightforward. The lower income spouse is not automatically entitled to spousal support. Entitlement can be based on the recipient’s needs, or it can be what is called ‘compensatory’ support. Compensatory support reflects the financial benefit gained by the payor, for example, if their partner took time out of the workforce to raise children, or to help build their business

Family Law

Separation Agreements

When people are contemplating divorce, the goal is to negotiate a mutually-acceptable separation agreement between spouses which addresses outstanding issues.

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Uncontested Divorce

Divorce is usually the final step in the separation process. It happens after the separation agreement is negotiated and signed, or after a final order.

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Property Division

When married people separate, both spouses are entitled to an equalization of the net family property. Marriage is considered a financial partnership.

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Litigation

Litigation is expensive, contentious and highly emotional. Litigation may be necessary if the alternative means that you don’t have any chance of getting what you’re entitled to.

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Child Support

Parents in Ontario have an obligation to financially support their children. The amount payable is determined in accordance with the federal Child Support Guidelines.

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Spousal Support

Spousal support, also known by the American term ‘alimony’, refers to ongoing maintenance given to a spouse which is either for an indefinite, or fixed, term.

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Unbundled Services

With the cost of legal services- particularly litigation- being so high, it’s not always possible to be able to afford full representation from a lawyer throughout your case.

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Child Custody

When people separate, it can be difficult to negotiate a workable custody and access schedule, particularly if both parties are not planning on residing in the same city.

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Why use me as your lawyer?

I'm a lawyer representing clients in Kanata, Nepean, and the west-end of Ottawa.

Kerry Fox, LL.B.
Barrister & Solicitor

90 Centrepointe Dr,
Nepean, ON K2G 6B1

Tel: (613) 224-4400
Fax: (613) 226-8767

Hours & Information

There is plenty of free parking located at the back of the building.

Monday to Friday
8:30AM - 5:00PM
I also have Saturday appointments available.