How to Negotiate A Separation or Divorce Settlement with Your Former Spouse in Ontario!

How to Negotiate A Separation or Divorce Settlement with Your Former Spouse in Ontario!

If you’ve been wondering about how to negotiate a family law or divorce settlement with your former spouse, you’ve come to the right place.

It certainly can be a tricky matter if you don’t know what you’re doing!

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

Please remember to like this video and subscribe to my Youtube channel if you have not done so already.

I will discuss some key points in this video you need to know to negotiate an effective family law or divorce settlement with your former spouse in Ontario:

1.   Know and Understand Your Family Law Rights

How can you possibly settle your legal issues in your separation or divorce without first knowing and understanding your family law rights?

In fact, you should not even start negotiating a settlement with your former spouse without first knowing your family law rights.  

You need to clearly understand your family law rights in these key areas of most separation or divorce cases: child custody and access, now called decision-making responsibility and parenting time, child support, spousal support, and the property issues.

You can easily end up with a terrible settlement when you don’t understand your legal rights in your separation or divorce.

And it’s also important to remember this:  You can have a difficult time changing a final settlement on the family law issues in your case at a later date.

2.   Know Your Best and Worst Case Scenarios

You need to carefully figure out what your best-case scenario is likely to be if you continue in family court or you must decide to go to family court since your former spouse is taking an unreasonable position on one or more important issues in your case.

You also need to know your worst-case scenario if you go to trial in family court.

You can only really know your best-case and worst-case scenarios by getting the advice of an experienced family lawyer. 

When you have this key information, you can carefully decide what settlement offers makes sense in your particular case.  You can properly figure out what settlement offer you should make to your ex-spouse and what changes you can make to any existing offer you have made to your former spouse.

You will also know how to judge any settlement offers or proposals from your former spouse. 

3.  Know What You and Your Former Spouse Want

I often hear clients tell me that they want “what’s fair”.  However, they don’t really know what that means.

You need to carefully consider what makes sense for you and your kids after your separation or divorce is finalized.

You need to work closely with your family lawyer to know “what’s fair” in your particular case based on the facts of your specific situation and the application of Ontario family law principles to your situation.

You also need to know what your former spouse wants as a result of the separation and divorce process.  You are more likely to craft or create a family law settlement or separation agreement that your former spouse accepts when this proposed settlement satisfies what your spouse want.

You need to create a “win-win” situation for both you and your former spouse as much as possible in your family law settlement proposal to encourage your spouse to accept this proposal and settle your case without going to court or a trial.

I will discuss more key ways to negotiate a family law or divorce settlement in Ontario in the next video.

If you have any questions about your separation, divorce or family law case and you would like our help, feel free to contact on my Facebook law office page, that’s O’Malley Family Law, or call me at 905-434-8837 and I’ll point in you in the right direction. 

Click here to join my free Facebook GTA and Durham Region separation and divorce support group: GTA and Durham Region Separation and Divorce Support Group

Please make sure to share this important information with your friends, family members and co-workers.