Discover The Key Family Law Issues in Most Ontario Separations and Divorces!

Discover The Key Family Law Issues in Most Ontario Separations and Divorces!

It’s a fact of life that you’ll have some really important legal issues to solve in the separation and divorce process.

Hi, my name is Thomas O’Malley.  I’m an experienced family lawyer in Durham Region and the GTA.

I’ve discussed the important parts of the separation and divorce process in Ontario in other videos.

Now, I’ll discuss the critical family law issues you have to resolve during the separation and divorce process.

If you have dependent children, you have to settle the issue of child custody and access with your former spouse.  You have to make the important decision about who makes the decisions for your children, especially the issues regarding education, health, and extra-curricular activities.

If you have made most of the decisions about your children, you might get an order that allows you to make most of these important decisions.  This is called sole custody.

If you and the other parent can co-operate in a civil and respectful manner, you’ll get an order for joint custody.  This means both parents have equal say in all major decisions about your children’s lives.

Then you have to decide the actual parenting time that you and your former spouse have with your children.  Increasingly, parents have their children on an equal basis.  For example, a parent has the children for one week and the other parent has the children for the following week on a rotating basis.  This is called parenting time on a “week-about” basis or schedule.

You or the other parent will have to pay child support to the other parent depending on your annual income.  If the children live with you most of the time, the other parent will pay you child support based on their gross annual income pursuant to the Ontario Child Support Guidelines.

If you and the other parent have the children on an equal basis, such as a week-about schedule, then the parent with the higher gross annual income will pay child support to the other parent based on a set-off amount calculated based on the Ontario Child Support Guidelines.

The next important issue is spousal support.  You might have to pay spousal support to your former spouse when you have a higher income and you have had a common-law relationship or marriage that was several years in length or longer.

You have to review the results from a program called the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (called the SSAG for short).  The Ontario family court puts a lot of weight in the results calculated in the SSAG. The SSAG shows a low, medium, and high amount of spousal support based on the facts in your situation.

Finally, you have to deal with the property issues in your case.  This area of Ontario family law gets complicated quite quickly.  You really need to get the advice of an experienced family lawyer to assist you with this issue in particular.

If you have any questions about your separation, divorce or family law case and you would like our help, there’s a few ways to contact our office.  

You can leave a message on my Facebook law office page, visit my website at www.canadiandivorcelegaladvice.com, or call me directly at 905-434-8837. 

We would be happy to speak to you.

Oh, by the way, did you know you can protect your family law rights and get essential information on settling your family law issues with your former spouse with the daily indispensable family law advice and tips at my FREE Facebook group? 

Click here to find out more: Durham Region Separation and Divorce Legal Support Group  

Thanks for watching this video.