Property division for people who are married
Marriage is considered to be a partnership, with each spouse making equal, if different, contributions and sharing equally in the family’s property if the partnership ends. This includes property acquired during the years of the marriage that has been paid for by only one spouse or is registered in the name of only one spouse.
People must be at least 18 years of age to marry in Ontario. People as young as 16 years of age can marry if they have the written consent of both sets of parents. People of the same sex can marry.
Generally, marriages from outside Canada are recognized as legally valid here if they were performed according to the laws of the country where they took place.
One particular example of the ongoing abuse many women experience when they leave their partner is legal bullying, especially in family court.
This abuse/bullying can take many forms. One of the most common is that the abuser decides to represent himself, even though he could afford a lawyer. This allows him many opportunities to bully and intimidate his former partner.
A relatively new concept in Canada, voice of the child reports are one technique to ensure that children have the opportunity to be heard in custody proceedings. Such a report, sometimes known as the views of the child, provides information about what the child thinks about his or her life and the issues in dispute between the parents to the court to assist in the decision making process.
Many legal issues arise when a couple separates: custody and access, financial issues and dividing the family property are often the most pressing. Some people decide to attempt to resolve these issues without going to court and use one of a variety of alternative dispute resolution techniques.
Arbitration is one of these techniques.
The Family Responsibility Office (FRO) is part of Ontario’s Ministry of Community and Social Services. It is responsible for collecting and distributing child and spousal support orders. Where the person paying the support is not doing so, FRO can take steps to enforce payment.
How does FRO become involved?
The Supervised Access Program makes it possible for separated families to deal with some of the problems related to custody and access, particularly when there are safety concerns for either the primary parent or the children.
The Ministry of the Attorney General has supervised access centres across Ontario that provide fully supervised on-site visits in a group setting and supervised exchanges for off-site unsupervised access.
Parenting coordination is a form of alternative dispute resolution that can assist parents implement their parenting plan, usually after a court order for custody and access is in place. Parenting coordinators (PC) are often mental health professionals, but lawyers and mediators can also function as PCs.
Most have some knowledge of divorce/separation,
Mediation is a way that you and your former partner can try to work out your dispute without going to court. You work with a mediator to talk to one another and come to an agreement about issues such as custody, access, child or spousal support, division of property and the matrimonial home.
Mediation is one form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that women may be encouraged to use during their family court process. In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on the use of ADR to resolve family law differences and disputes.
In some family law cases, ADR can be better than going to court.
