Wait until the honeymoons over at least. I’m kidding. In truth, you do not necessarily “have” to ask for a divorce. Only one party needs to initiate the process. There may come a time during your marriage when you realize you and your partner’s relationship is disintegrating to the point where being legally separated or divorced would leave you both better off. If one is ever unfortunate enough to find his or herself in the midst of such a mess, here are some fundamentals.

The three categories of divorce under Canadian law are Adultery, cruelty and no-fault. Although the majority of cases end up being no-fault divorces, where parties wait a year (the required time under the Divorce Act to demonstrate the breakdown of the marriage) and then are divorced, the other two are still used and, dependant on location may inflict added penalties on the offending party. This is the case in British Columbia where the Family Relations Act states:

“If, in a proceeding for judicial separation or dissolution of marriage on grounds of adultery, the person with whom the adultery is alleged to have been committed is served with notice of the proceedings and adultery is proved, the court may order that person to pay all or a part of the cost of the proceeding.”

Suffice it to say the process begins about the same for all three. It starts with an application for divorce. These applications want you to specify the type of divorce you are seeking, when and where the marriage happened, include copies of any birth certificates (if kids are involved) and a copy of the marriage certificate. When kids are involved, it is important to go into detail about who should have custody of the children and if support payments or corollary relief is necessary. Property and assets (if not stipulated in a pre-marital agreement already) should be divvied up between the parties and any other joint matters need to be addressed in this document as well.

In contested divorces where problems arise between parties over assets, corollary relief, pets, etc the divorce can end up in court. It is best to consult a lawyer in contested divorces to better your own outcome.  Lawyerahead.ca has the most comprehensive information on a canadian lawyer.  You may wish to talk to few lawyers and decide if their experiences match what you are looking for.  In these cases of contested divorces, parties have a right to cross-examine each other if they cannot resolve their differences and things can get messy depending on situations and the volatility of the situation. Mediation options are available to avoid such impediments and should be considered.

Uncontested divorces go quicker. After filing, paying fees and some time, the paperwork clears and both parties then must file affidavits and a second set of papers. If all goes well and both parties are on the same level, things can go rather smoothly and it is just a matter of time before you are legally free from each other.

Separations are difficult in and of themselves, but when children are involved, the whole process becomes much more complicated. One party may not be able to accommodate children on a regular basis post-separation. One party may not want the other party to have regular visits or a lot of interaction with the children for reasons of lifestyle or fear of abuse. These are some of the factors courts use to determine child custody.

One misconception is that the primary caregiver of the children is the de facto custodian. This is not the case. The past care of a child may play a factor when determining custody, but if, let’s say, the other party gets a court order to get custody, they will have legal rights to the child and the child will be taken away.

There are many factors that affect a courts decision, but the three that have the most weight are in these cases. The mother is a stay at home mom. Mothers that do not have a job almost always get custody of the children over a father who works. This is because the court likes the children to be in an environment where the parent is certain to be around often.

The second is an established status quo. If children are already living with one of the parents, the court will see this as the default living situation and frown upon changing things up.

Thirdly, courts favor the primary caregiver. If a parent of the child can prove that they are the primary caregiver, the judge may presume that he or she is best able to provide care for the child in the future and grant custody. Although primary caregivers tend to win custody battles, as stated before, there is no guarantee to this effect.

Other factors like which parent can better provide for a child’s financial and emotional needs, the parent/child relationship, which parent has more time available to the child and the child’s special needs all play a part in the process as well. In addition, if the child is older, the courts may go by the wishes of the child and assign custody accordingly.

The process may take a lot of time, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The courts want what is best for the child and so do you. Determining that may take some time, but in the end, is well worth the trouble.

Finding a lawyer with lawyerahead.ca is as simple as step 1, 2, 3.  Have Family Lawyers and other Lawyers contact you with how best they can help you resolve your Family legal issues.

Unfortunately, some relationships do not work out for a variety of reasons. In some cases where counseling fails or a couple cannot continue their relationship, they may choose divorce.

Divorce can be a tricky process, but there are some general principles you should know. First, get a lawyer.

There is no law that says you have to have a lawyer to get divorced, but when it comes down to it, having one makes the whole process flow smoothly. They are able to answer whatever questions you may have relating to debt, alimony, and child support and they have a keen sense of what specific details you would need to include in a settlement agreement if you and your spouse go that route.

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A settlement agreement is an agreement you sign voluntarily. These are negotiated voluntarily as well. Settlement agreements offer a broad range of options for both parties to pursue and they are only limited slightly, i.e. someone must support the children and the children must not be subjected to danger or neglect. Your lawyer can guide you based on her experience in court to what you will “probably” get if you go to trial. This guidance is made more accurate by your lawyer’s history with the judge and his years of experience.

Not many guidelines govern divorce. The judge uses his own discretion and each case is unique. Every divorce deals with five basic issues. These are alimony, property division, custody of the children, visitation, and child support. Obviously, if you do not have any kids, divorce is a lot simpler and deals mainly with asset/debt distribution. When it comes to property, the province needs to know who will be holding the deed to maintain the property’s transferability.

The concept of alimony also refered to as Spousal Support has changed lately. The classic view of alimony is the man paying alimony payments to his estranged spouse. Alimony used to be considered the norm, but recently there has been a push towards having both parties support themselves. Technically, the court has the right to order a wife to pay her husband alimony, but this rarely happens. Nowadays, alimony, if awarded, is awarded for shorter periods and for smaller amounts. Alimony payment amounts tend to be the hardest to agree upon during divorce settlement negotiations.

As for assets and debts, they are disseminated between the parties during the divorce process. Assets, or marital property, are tangible property like cars, jewelry and real estate and intangible property such as pensions, patent rights, or retirement accounts. The laws vary on this subject depending on where you live. Your divorce lawyer will help you with this.

The single most important step in a divorce is getting a lawyer. Divorce is extremely difficult to go through emotionally and you might not be thinking clearly. Additionally, lawyers know all the ins and outs that you do not know. Finding an attorney you trust and that works with you will help ease the mind and make the divorce process as painless as possible.

Click here to find a top Family Lawyer in Brampton or a Divorce Lawyer in Brampton.

Click here to find a top Family Lawyer in Mississauga or a Divorce Lawyer in Mississauga for your family legal matters.

Right from the last week discrimination issues we will move to some more positive things. This spring will be full of anniversaries for one of Canada provinces – New Brunswick.

This spring will mark the 90th anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote in New Brunswick elections (April 17, 1919), and the 75th anniversary of women obtaining the right to be a candidate in New Brunswick elections (March 9, 1934). For those who are not familiar with the history of women’s’ right to vote in Canada we’ll take a short look back. The rights for widows and unmarried women were granted in municipal elections in Ontario in 1884 and later provided in all provinces, but it actually left all the married women without that right. The first province to adopt the right for all women to vote was Manitoba in 1916. Two years later Dominion (federal) parliament passed an act giving women the vote in federal elections. Quebec was the last province to adopt this act, it happened only in 1940. A big part of equal rights also came into force on April 17, 1985 with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The battle for this charter started on Valentine’s Day 1981, when more than 1,300 Canadian women, almost spontaneously gathered for a conference in the Parliament buildings. This protest ensured that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms included the rights of women. This was a direct response to the cancellation of planned conference on women and the Constitution by the Trudeau government. The government busy with the Charter feared that additional equality demands would make the difficult process of writing the Charter even more difficult. In response the president of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Doris Anderson, resigned from her post and the women rights activists organized the Valentine’s Day conference. Before 1981 no Supreme Court of Canada judge had ever been a woman and the old Canadian Bill of Rights had not served women well. The new Charter was the opportunity to finally bring in some real equality in Canada, so the stand was really hard. The result itself was great, women really brought in some significant changes into the new Charter.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms brought many important changes. For example “Unity of legal personality,” was abolished, it said that wife and husband were one (the husband) and the married woman could not enter into contracts nor sue or be sued. Married women had no right to custody of their children (though they often got them by default), and they were basically duty-bound to give the husband sexual and domestic services and he was protected against loss of his wife’s services. Of course the right to vote was important but these additional rights in family relation were a significant change.

While the set of new laws itself was presented in 1985, in real life the struggle for equality is still ongoing. And the battle for the end of discrimination and equality under the same law will definitely last some more decades.

Links to Family Lawyer, Lawyers and Attorneys.

Family law comprises of both – divorce and family violence issues.

Canadian family law covers issues on which a case could be filed as well as the punishment to the accused person can be given.

Canada’s Divorce Act applies in all the parts of Canada. Some of the grounds on which divorce case can be filed include:

• Spouses have lived apart for at least one year

• The defendant spouse has committed adultery

• The defendant spouse is mentally or physical assaulted by the plaintiff spouse

Some of the clauses considered by court in case of divorce are:

• Reconciliation is encouraged

• Division of Property

• Custody & Access - Best interest of child, involvement of both parents is encouraged

• Child Maintenance

• Federal Child Support Guidelines

• Spousal Support, Alimony

• Rewriting Divorce Contracts

• Enforcement of Child and Spousal Support Payments

• Provincial Family Maintenance Enforcement Programs

Want to solve all or any of these problems? Visit Lawyerahead.ca. It is a platform for clients to find lawyers. Post your family case and have lawyers contact you, interact with the community and learn more about other’s experiences with family law.

While divorce, in many minds, conjures up images of painful fighting and long, protracted court battles over the couch, the dog, and the kids, those seeking to ease the process can find more peaceful options than taking their former spouse to court: in Canada, families can elect to pursue either arbitration or mediation.

Arbitration and Mediation are two government-approved alternatives to entering divorce court to resolve disputes related to the breakup of the marriage. While neither process can make you officially divorced, it can help settle the issues that accompany a divorce much more cheaply.

There are differences between the two processes. Arbitration involves each party presenting their case to the agreed-upon arbitrator, and receiving a decision from the arbitrator (called an “award”) that is legally binding, if all the legal procedures were followed correctly. In Mediation, the agreement made is not legally binding until both parties have agreed to and signed the document.

For Canadians, mediation and arbitration are important options in the divorce process, easing and helping solve what are often very upsetting and contentious disputes. When it comes to child custody, mediation is an excellent option, since mediators are trained to place the children’s interests at the heart of the resolution.

Both Mediation and Arbitration take into account problems such as domestic violence and power imbalances within a family, and can use these to create custom rules for the mediation or arbitration process. People seeking mediation and/or arbitration still keep their lawyers, and consult with them throughout the process. The mediators, who must be agreed upon by all parties in the dispute, can be found through help from the courts, and organizations like Family Mediation Canada (FMC) or the Ontario Association for Family Mediation (OAFM). Your lawyer, as well as your local courts, will have more information on mediators in your area.

Mediation and Arbitration are voluntary programs, which are agreed to by all parties in a divorce before they begin. They have the potential to ease the divorce process, and help individuals come to a less contentious and bitter end to their relationship. While these options may not be for everyone, they’re certainly important for those looking to form an amicable divorce, or at least avoid some of the expenses of protracted court battles.

Learn more about Child Custody Basics, Child Support Basics, Factors and Preferences in Child Custody Decisions, Adoption Basics, Spousal Support Basics, Prenuptual Agreements, and Divorce Property Division from Lawyerahead.ca.

Find Recent Child Custody cases, Child Support cases, Prenuptial cases, Divorce cases, Spousal Support cases, Separation cases, and Paternity cases.

Brittney Spears and Donald Trump can apparently commiserate over this particular woe: contesting high legal fees. Both celebs are accusing their lawyers of overcharging, and have been accused themselves of failing to pay their legal bills. Trump, however, is the only one claiming to have “a Ph.D. in legal fees.”

According to CNN, Britney Spears has managed to rack up more than $466,000 in fees from lawyers Stacy D. Phillips (currently seeking $407,000 from Spears) and Laura Wasser (seeking $60,000). Most of these costs were from Britney’s divorce from husband Kevin Federline. Spears and her father, however, are contesting the $60,000 from Wasser, however, which came from Spears’s fight with Federline over the custody of their two children. Wasser claims the work done for Spears in Spears’s custody battle with Federline was more complicated than usual, since Spears has been under the temporary conservatorship of her father. Spears is also paying K-Fed’s legal bills, currently totaling $250,000, since he has no net income of his own. In total, Spears owes over $716,000 in legal fees.

Donald Trump’s legal-fee woes are a bit worse- and he is suing the firm Morrison Cohen for malpractice. Trump sued a contractor working on his Briarcliff Manor, NY golf course, for overcharging for an earth moving contract, and for walking off a contract to provide infrastructure elements for the golf course. Trump was awarded $2 million in damages for the breach of contract for the first contract, but only $40,000 for the infrastructure contract.. Trump was also awarded $1.3 million in legal fees in the case. However, Trump is now suing the firm, Morrison Cohen, for malpractice, stating that they should have informed him of the low possibility for recouping the legal fees incurred in pursuing the case. He also claims that the fees involved in the two cases were abnormally high. “I have dealt with a lot of lawyers and paid a lot of legal fees,” Trump told New York Law Journal. “I have a Ph.D. in legal fees. I know when fees are fair and when they are not.” Trump also said the firm treated him like a “cash cow,” and, because The Donald is never hubristic, further claims that he, personally, is the reason they won the case. “We won the case because I’m a great witness,” Trump also told NYLJ.

Morrison Cohen is countering with a claim of $470,000 in legal fees that Trump has failed to pay, and has stated that it was necessary to pursue the infrastructure case, since the opposing side had raised the issue.

While Trump may have a long history of awkward comments- including blaming Britney’s hospitalizations in January on her parents and trying to get Britney, along with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, into a celebrity version of The Apprentice, while simultaneously saying “she’s a f***ing mess.” Though perhaps these two can overcome their differences, and whine together over their shared inability to pay their legal bills on time.

*Top Child Support case under recent cases on Lawyerahead.ca

*Top Child Support case on Lawyerahead.ca

*Case that got the most attention for divorce and child custody in Toronto