Whether you require an agreement prior to entering into a spousal relationship, during a spousal relationship or following separation, we can assist you in drafting, negotiating, and structuring your agreement in a manner that not only resolves your legal issues but provides a governing guideline for parenting and other responsibilities of each party to the agreement such that it provides clarity and certainty and is enforceable in the event of non-compliance. “Lite” generally means there are only a couple of issues such as custody, parenting and support or straightforward division of property.

Whether you require an agreement prior to entering into a spousal relationship, during a spousal relationship or following separation, we can assist you in drafting, negotiating, and structuring your agreement in a manner that not only resolves your legal issues but provides a governing guideline for parenting and other responsibilities of each party to the agreement such that it provides clarity and certainty and is enforceable in the event of non-compliance. These typically involve a plethora of legal issues.

These typically require significant legal or financial planning to take advantage of any corporate structuring or tax considerations in consultation with either your existing financial or tax planner or one of our partnering professionals. Whether you require an agreement prior to entering into a spousal relationship, during a spousal relationship or following separation, we can assist you in drafting, negotiating, and structuring your agreement in a manner that not only resolves your legal issues but provides a governing guideline for parenting and other responsibilities of each party to the agreement such that it provides clarity and certainty and is enforceable in the event of non-compliance. These typically involve a plethora of legal issues.

If you have a legal agreement and only require review and advice relating to the same, we can ensure you have been informed about your rights and obligations of any Interspousal Agreement as required under The Family Property Act.

Some matters can be settled relatively simply through one or more exchanges of correspondence. Our office strives to minimize back and forth communication and therefore costs incurred by our clients. We are usually able to achieve this by encouraging reasonable initial proposals and managing our clients’ expectations. Unfortunately, we cannot control the responses or positions of opposing parties and therefore, do not recommend expending significant costs with correspondence between lawyers or the other party. Fees for negotiation are based on the number of exchanges in a given month (i.e. less than 10 communications per month: $250; between 10-20 communications per month: $500; between 20-30 communications per month: $750; more than 30 communications per month: $1,000).

Some matters can be settled relatively simply through one or more exchanges of correspondence. Our office strives to minimize back and forth communication and therefore costs incurred by our clients. We are usually able to achieve this by encouraging reasonable initial proposals and managing our clients’ expectations. Unfortunately, we cannot control the responses or positions of opposing parties and therefore, do not recommend expending significant costs with correspondence between lawyers or the other party. Fees for negotiation are based on the number of exchanges in a given month (i.e. less than 10 communications per month: $250; between 10-20 communications per month: $500; between 20-30 communications per month: $750; more than 30 communications per month: $1,000).

Meeting with the other party and their lawyer can be an effective way in getting together to find amicable solutions to resolving your family law matter. Depending on the complexity of issues involved and the reasonableness of the opposing party, four-way meetings can be highly productive in resolving some or all of the outstanding issues

If there are no children of the marriage or other issues such as support or property involved, we can complete your divorce, usually within 60-90 days. This includes the court fees of approximately $390.

Commencing a court action requires the issuance of a petition and filing a financial statement (where there are support issues) and a property statement (where there are property issues). This starts the litigation process and is a required step to completing a divorce or obtaining a court order. The Petition signals to the opposing party what specific relief you are claiming. This includes court fees of $200 (no divorce) to $300 (including divorce).

Responding to a Petition you have been served with involves filing a formal response in the form of an Answer and filing a financial statement (where there are support issues) and a property statement (where there are property issues). If you have relief you wish to deal with that was not plead in the Petition, you will also need to file a Counter-Petition. The Answer and Counter-Petition responds to the relief sought by the other party while signalling what other relief you are claiming. This includes court fees of $100 (no divorce) to $200 (including divorce).

Disclosure of documents and information is crucial to determining fair and appropriate settlement of issues involving support and property division. There are a variety of methods that can be explored to ensure you have received the information required to satisfy you the resolution of your matter is fair. These include service and filing of a Notice to Disclose, service and filing of a Notice to Reply to Written Questions, conducting Oral Questioning, application to enforce compliance with deadlines, etc.

You may also have disclosure requirements you need to provide such as responding to a Notice to Disclose, responding to a Notice to Reply to Written Questions, subjecting yourself to Oral Questioning, or responding to an application to enforce compliance with deadlines, etc.

From time to time, your legal issues cannot wait to be resolved in the ordinary course and require more immediate court intervention. This could involve custody or access issues, child or spousal support issues, or property matters (i.e. exclusive possession of the family home, preservation order restraining the sale or disposal of family property, or an interim distribution, etc.) Although interim applications are generally suggested to be a last-resort mechanism to dealing with your family law issues, occasionally they are necessary where the opposing party refuses to take a reasonable position or resists your attempts to move forward in a more efficient manner. This includes the $20 to $50 in court fees that may be incurred. “Lite” generally means there are only a couple of issues such as custody, parenting and support or straightforward division of property.

From time to time, your legal issues cannot wait to be resolved in the ordinary course and require more immediate court intervention. This could involve custody or access issues, child or spousal support issues, or property matters (i.e. exclusive possession of the family home, preservation order restraining the sale or disposal of family property, or an interim distribution, etc.) Although interim applications are generally suggested to be a last-resort mechanism to dealing with your family law issues, occasionally they are necessary where the opposing party refuses to take a reasonable position or resists your attempts to move forward in a more efficient manner. This includes the $20 to $50 in court fees that may be incurred. These typically involve a plethora of legal issues.

From time to time, your legal issues cannot wait to be resolved in the ordinary course and require more immediate court intervention. This could involve custody or access issues, child or spousal support issues, or property matters (i.e. exclusive possession of the family home, preservation order restraining the sale or disposal of family property, or an interim distribution, etc.) Although interim applications are generally suggested to be a last-resort mechanism to dealing with your family law issues, occasionally they are necessary where the opposing party refuses to take a reasonable position or resists your attempts to move forward in a more efficient manner. This includes the $20 to $50 in court fees that may be incurred. These typically involve a plethora of legal issues. In the event you are responding to an interim application, the cost will be slightly less.

From time to time, your legal issues cannot wait to be resolved in the ordinary course and require more immediate court intervention. This could involve custody or access issues, child or spousal support issues, or property matters (i.e. exclusive possession of the family home, preservation order restraining the sale or disposal of family property, or an interim distribution, etc.) Although interim applications are generally suggested to be a last-resort mechanism to dealing with your family law issues, occasionally they are necessary where the opposing party refuses to take a reasonable position or resists your attempts to move forward in a more efficient manner. This includes the $20 to $50 in court fees that may be incurred. These typically involve a plethora of legal issues. In the event you are responding to an interim application, the cost will be slightly less.

A pretrial management conference is a mandatory procedure on the litigation path in the event you are not able to otherwise resolve matters by agreement. We start by scheduling the pretrial by teleconference. Once it is scheduled (usually 4-6 months after the teleconference), both parties are required to file pretrial briefs of law outlining their positions 10 days before the pretrial. The process involves both parties coming together in the presence of a judge who assist the parties in facilitating meaningful settlement discussion. They are highly effective in reaching a final resolution with a high probability of settlement by way of Minutes of Settlement or Consent Judgment. This includes the $75 court fees.

The last stage in the litigation process is trial. Some statistics suggest less than 2% of family law files end up going to trial and it is considered the absolute last resort to settling family law issues. There is a considerable amount of preparation involved in trials including organization of documents to be used as exhibits, strategizing preparing questions for witnesses, reviewing all pleadings and court documents, etc.

It is estimated that for every day of trial, there are 3-4 days of preparation. This preparation occurs at various phases in the days, weeks and months before trial. For this reason, fees are typically charged for one day of trial even if the matter settles within two months before the start of the trial, for two days of trial even if the matter settles within two weeks of trial, for three days of trial even if the matter settles within one day of trial and for the entirety of the scheduled days of trial whether they are utilized or not. It is always advisable to avoid trial if at all possible, not just because of the high financial cost, but also due to the high emotional cost given the stress of the process.

Occasionally, litigants end up with a decision they do not agree with and wish to challenge the court’s decision to a higher authority. The law is constantly evolving and the Court of Appeal’s decisions serve to advance those evolutions and provide valuable commentary and clarification to lower courts, lawyers and litigants.

Because the complexity of an appeal often depends on the complexity of the lower court’s decision, there are few metrics that can assist us in determining an appropriate fee. Accordingly, our general policy is to round up to the nearest ten pages to calculate the fee estimate. This includes court filing fees but not the cost of obtaining any transcripts.