Difference between revisions of "Terminology"

;special costs:Special costs, unlike the more commonly awarded ''party and party'' costs, are intended to resemble closely the reasonable fees charged by a lawyer. They are awarded by the court in exceptional circumstances to address reprehensible conduct of one party (or even a non-party) that has prejudiced a party. Reprehensible conduct is likely where there is evidence of improper motive, abuse of the court’s process, misleading the court, or persistent breaches of the rules of court or professional conduct that has prejudiced the party applying for special costs;

;split custody:A term used by the Child Support Guidelines to describe circumstances in which one or more children live most of the time with each parent or guardian, resulting in an amount of support that is different than the table amount. See "child support," "Child Support Guidelines," and "table amount."

;Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines:An academic paper released by the Department of Justice that describes a variety of mathematical formulas that can be applied to determine how much spousal support should be paid and how long spousal support should be paid for, once a spouse is found to be entitled to receive support. The Advisory Guidelines is not a law, but is nonetheless very useful.

;spouse:Under the ''Divorce Act'', either of two people who are married to one another, whether of the same or opposite genders. Under the ''Family Law Act'', married spouses, unmarried parties who have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years, and, for all purposes of the act other than the division of property or debt, unmarried parties who have lived together for less than two years but have had a child together. See "marriage" and "marriage-like relationship."