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===How are family law problems resolved under the ''Family Law Act''?===
The ''[[Family Law Act]]'' tries to change how people solve family law problems. The law: *encourages people to find solutions outside of court; , *makes financial disclosure mandatory, even when you're dealing with a family law problem outside of court; , *makes family law agreements more difficult to change, as long as they were fairly negotiated; , and, *promotes the use of parenting coordinators, when there is a final agreement or order about the care of children.
When people have to go to court, however, the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' gives the court new ways to:
*managing children’s property.
The act''Act'', in other words, covers everything except adoption, child protection and wills issues!
==The law about children==
*the court makes an order that the parent is a guardian,
*the parent and the child’s other guardians make an agreement that the parent is a guardian,
*the parent "''regularly cares" '' for the child, or
*the parent is a parent because of an assisted reproduction agreement.
The court can make an order that someone who isn’t a parent is the guardian of a child. The court can also make an order that someone who is a guardian is no longer a guardian. Both the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court can make orders about guardianship.
It's important to know that a guardian's spouse or partner doesn’t become a guardian to a child just because of his or her their relationship with the child’s guardian. The only way for a spouse or partner to become a guardian is to be appointed as a guardian by the court.
===What are parental responsibilities?===
===What happens if a guardian can’t exercise parental responsibilities?===
If a guardian is temporarily unable to exercise his or her their parental responsibilities, the guardian can authorize someone else to manage certain responsibilities. This person doesn’t become a guardian but can:
*make decisions about the day-to-day care of the child,
The new person takes over as guardian when the first guardian dies or becomes unable to exercise parental responsibilities.
It's important to know that a parent who is not a guardian does not automatically become the child’s guardian when a guardian dies. If that parent wants to become the child’s guardian, he or she they <span class="noglossary">will</span> have to be appointed as a guardian by the court.
===What's the different between parenting time and contact?===
Agreements about parenting time and contact can be made by the child’s guardians. The court can make orders about parenting time and contact. Both the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court can make orders about parenting time and contact.
Agreements and orders about parenting time and contact can set a fixed schedule of time with a child or they can say that the parenting time or contact will happen when everyone agrees, as the child prefers or on some other term. Parenting time and contact can also be on conditions, for example that the person will not smoke or drink during his or her their time with the child, or be supervised.
Remember that only guardians have parenting time. Everyone else has contact with a child.
The ''Family Law Act'' gives the court the power to enforce parenting time and contact when:
*parenting time or contact has been "wrongfully withheld" from a person entitled to parenting time or contact, or*a person with parenting time or contact fails to use his or her their parenting time or contact.
In certain situations, it isn’t "wrongful" to withhold a child from a person entitled to parenting time or contact. Under s. 62, it isn’t wrongful to withhold a child if:
*the guardian with the child believes there is a risk of family violence, or that the other person is impaired by alcohol or drugs,
*the child is sick, and the guardian with the child has a doctor’s note,
*the other person has frequently failed to use his or her their parenting time or contact in the past, or
*the other person told the guardian ahead of time that the parenting time or contact wasn’t going to be used.
If a guardian wants to move, with or without a child, and the move <span class="noglossary">will</span> have an impact on the child’s relationship with another guardian or someone who has contact with the child, the guardian must usually give 60 days’ notice of the move, in writing. The notice must say where the guardian plans on moving to and when the guardian plans on moving. See the discussion on relocation in the page on [[Changing_Family_Law_Orders_and_Agreements_Involving_Children#Relocating_with_or_without_a_child | Changing Family Law Orders and Agreements Involving Children]] for more information.
Only other guardians can object when a guardian plans on moving. If a guardian objects, he or she has they have 30 days to go to court to get an order preventing the move. Remember that only a guardian can object to a proposed move! Someone who has contact can't prevent a guardian from moving.
When a guardian objects, the guardian who wants to move must show the court that:
*he or she wants they want to move ''in "good faith''," and*he or she has they have proposed reasonable plans to preserve the child’s relationship with the child’s other guardians, with people who have contact with the child, and with others who have an important role in the child’s life.
The guardian who objects to the move must then show that the move is not in the best interests of the child or the move <span class="noglossary">will</span> be allowed.
When a guardian objects and the moving guardian and the objecting guardian share the child’s time equally or almost equally, the guardian who wants to move must show the court that:
*he or she wants they want to move in good faith,*he or she has they have proposed reasonable plans to preserve the child’s relationship with the child’s other guardians, with people who have contact with the child, and with others who have an important role in the child’s life, and
*the move is in the child’s best interests.
===Who is required to pay child support?===
All of a child’s parents and guardians are required to support the child. The person with whom the child lives most often is presumed to meet his or her their support obligation through the many tangible and intangible ways that he or she cares they care for the child living in his or her their home. Everyone else pays child support, and more than one person can be required to pay child support at the same time for the same child.
In certain circumstances, stepparents can also be required to pay child support. A ''stepparent'' is the married or unmarried spouse of a parent, as long as:
The ''Family Law Act'' doesn’t change how any of these problems are handled. What the ''Family Law Act'' does change is the calculation of child support for guardians who are not parents and for stepparents. Under the act, the child support obligations of guardians who are not parents come second to the obligations of parents. The child support obligations of stepparents come second to both parents and guardians, and the amount of support a stepparent should pay is based on:
*the child’s standard of living when he or she they lived with the stepparent, and
*the length of time the child lived with the stepparent.
If the payor has a life insurance policy, the parties can agree and the court can order that the payor keep the policy up to date and name a person, usually the recipient, as the beneficiary of the policy. This way, the child <span class="noglossary">will</span> still be supported if the payor dies.
The parties can agree and the court can order that the payor’s obligation to pay child support <span class="noglossary">will</span> continue after the payor’s death and be paid from his or her their estate. Court orders about this can be made at the time the child support order is made or after the payor’s death.
==The law about spousal support==
*are married to each other or used to be married to each other,
*have lived together in a "marriage-like relationship" for at least two years, and
*have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for less than two years and have had a child together.
A spouse’s entitlement to spousal support is determined based on factors taken from the ''[[Divorce Act]]'', set out at s. 161 of the ''Family Law Act''.
Remember that no one is automatically entitled to get spousal support the way a child is automatically entitled to benefit from child support. Anyone who is a spouse can ''ask'' for spousal support, but being able to ask doesn’t mean you’ll get it. Someone asking for spousal support also show that he or she is they are ''entitled'' to spousal support.
===When do claims for spousal support have to be made?===
There are tax consequences when spousal support is paid on a regular, repeating basis. Spousal support is tax neutral when it is paid as a single lump sum.
The recipient of regular payments of spousal support must declare the support received in his or her their income tax return and pay tax on it, just as if the support payments were employment income. The payor can deduct the spousal support paid from his or her their taxable income, like how RRSP contributions can be deducted from taxable income. This usually means that the recipient has to pay tax at the end of the year while the payor gets a tax refund.
Remember that taxes should be taken into account when figuring out spousal support. At a minimum, recipients should be reminded to put some money aside to pay their taxes.
If the payor has a life insurance policy, the parties can agree and the court can order that the payor keep the policy up to date and name a person, usually the recipient, as the beneficiary of the policy. This way, the spouse <span class="noglossary">will</span> still be supported if the payor dies.
The parties can agree and the court can order that the payor’s obligation to pay spousal support <span class="noglossary">will</span> continue after the payor’s death and be paid from his or her their estate. Court orders about this can be made at the time the spousal support order is made or after the payor’s death.
Note that the rules about life insurance and support when the payor dies are the same for spousal support as they are for child support.
====Excluded property====
Each spouse’s excluded property is presumed to remain his or her their separate property and to not be shared with the other spouse.
The court can divide a spouse’s excluded property if:
*in the case of children, being exposed to family violence.
Family violence does not include a person’s use of force to protect him- or herselfthemself, or someone else, from family violence.
===What are the duties of professionals?===
====Applying for a protection orders====
A person at risk of family violence, or someone on that person’s behalf, can ask the court for a protection order as long as the at-risk person and the person from whom the protection order is sought are ''family members'' as defined by s. 1. In general, a "family member" is someone who lives with the other person, someone who is a spouse of the other person and someone who is a parent with the other person. People who don't live together and are just dating will not quality as "family members."
Applications for protection orders can be made without notice to anyone else, and may be made whether there is an existing court proceeding or not.
====Duties of parties making agreements====
People who are trying to resolve family law problems outside of court are required to provide each other with "''full and true information''." Agreements about spousal support and the division of property and debt can be set aside for a number of reasons, including if:
*a spouse did not make full disclosure of financial information, or
Starting a court proceeding in one court doesn’t stop an proceeding being started in the other court, unless the claims made in the second proceeding have already been dealt with by the first court. Section 194 of the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' talks about what happens when there is a proceeding in each court:
*the The making of an order by one court doesn’t stop an application in the other court, unless the application is about the same thing as the order made by the first court,.*a A court can refuse to deal with a claim until the claim has been dealt with by the other court, and.*the The Supreme Court can consolidate a Provincial Court proceeding with its own proceeding so that both are handled as a single proceeding in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court can change a Provincial Court order to accommodate an order it is making. The Supreme Court cannot otherwise change Provincial Court orders except as the result of an appeal.
If a party is frustrating or misusing the court process, the court can make an order prohibiting the party from making further applications without permission under s. 221. When making such orders, the court can also:
====Conduct orders====
Under s. 222 of the '[[Family Law Act]]'', the court may make a ''conduct order'' to:
Conduct orders include orders:
Note that conduct orders restricting communication can also be made as protection orders.
Conduct orders include ''case management orders''. Case management orders include orders:
===How are orders enforced?===
Some orders, like orders about parenting time and contact, have their own enforcement procedures. Where an order under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' doesn't have a specific enforcement procedure, the general enforcement provisions of the act are used. Under s. 230, the court may enforce an order by requiring a party to:
Where nothing else <span class="noglossary">will</span> get a party to obey a court order, the court may order that the party be imprisoned for up to 30 days.