Family Law
Family law in Canada deals with a wide range of legal issues that impact families and relationships. It is a complex field that covers everything from marriage and divorce to child custody, adoption, and domestic violence.
Family law is governed by both federal and provincial laws, which can vary from one jurisdiction to another. Family lawyers play a crucial role in helping clients navigate these laws and achieve the best possible outcomes for their families.
Family Lawyer Toronto
Whether you are dealing with a divorce, struggling to obtain custody of your children, or seeking legal help for any other family matter, a family lawyer can provide valuable guidance and support. With their knowledge of the law and experience in the courtroom, family lawyers can help you protect your interests and move forward with confidence.
Family Lawyers Vaughan
Hummingbird Lawyers LLP has a team of family lawyers in both their Toronto and Vaughan offices. Our family lawyers work to resolve all types of family-related legal matters in a fair, respectful, and punctual fashion.
Areas Of Family Law
Regarded as experienced family lawyers, we pride ourselves on our wealth of experience in the areas of relationship breakdown, spousal support, child support, division of property and equalization, custody and access, pensions and trusts, and mobility issues.
Through our experience and knowledge, we understand the importance of getting these challenging matters right, especially when children are involved. Our collaborative approach to family law minimizes conflict by approaching all cases with the aim of arriving at a fair and practical settlement.
Family Law Services
Collaborative Family Law can be the right choice for clients wishing to avoid the emotional and financial toll of costly courtroom battles.
As part of the collaborative process, parties agree to avoid court and negotiate a mutually beneficial separation agreement. Unlike time consuming and expensive litigation, which can strain familial ties, this approach keeps control in the hands of the clients, allowing them to tailor solutions to their specific circumstances, ensuring a more personalized outcome.
Also, a key feature of the collaborative process is that each party’s lawyer also agrees to not represent the party outside the collaborative process, thereby evidencing each lawyers’ commitment and stake in helping their clients’ reach a resolution in the collaborative process.
How Collaborative Family Law Works
Together with their collaboratively trained lawyers, clients work with a financial expert and a family professional, where needed. By engaging a financial expert, parties gain a clearer picture of their financial situation post-separation, leading to fair and equitable settlements.
A family professional promotes a healthier emotional environment and helps create a parenting arrangement that is in the children’s best interest. The professional team provides expertise and insight that is extremely useful throughout the process. Finally, lawyers assist clients with determining creative solutions that best promote their unique goals and interests.
Embracing Collaborative Family Law is not just a legal choice; it’s a commitment to building a more harmonious future for families navigating the complexities of separation and divorce.
Family Law Mediation
Family law mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution that is gaining increasing popularity in the legal world. Compared to traditional court hearings, family law mediation offers a more cost-effective and efficient way of resolving conflicts within families.
Family law mediators are trained professionals who facilitate communication and negotiation between families to help them reach mutually acceptable solutions. Family lawyers are increasingly recommending mediation as a strategy for resolving disputes, and many courts are also referring parties to mediation before they proceed to trial.
For those seeking to resolve family legal disputes outside of court, family law mediation is a viable option to consider.
What Is Family Mediation?
Family Law Litigation
Some matters cannot be resolved outside of court for a variety of reasons: In some families, one spouse will not participate in negotiations or takes unreasonable positions while in others, both spouses have a good faith belief that their position be adopted and as a result are not able to reach a settlement. While litigation is rarely the first avenue that should be considered, it is sometimes necessary to obtain the assistance of a court in moving a matter forward. For matters that must be in litigation, it is important to work with a lawyer who will strategize the most effective path to your goal and will advise you of your rights along the way.
Managing a matter in litigation requires a specific skill set as well: experienced counsel will know whether and when to bring various types of motions and request specific relief and will also be able to guide you with respect to containing the cost of the litigation.
Cohabitation Agreements
Couples in a common-law relationship can enter into a cohabitation agreement to protect their respective interests. Such agreements can state what you both want your financial and family arrangements to be upon a relationship breakdown. It can set out your intentions with respect to property and spousal support upon a relationship breakdown.
Marriage Contracts
In Ontario, prenuptial agreements are referred to as a “marriage contract”. These are a type of domestic contract. A marriage contract is used to outline the rights and responsibilities between each party in the event of a separation.
Separation Agreements
A separation agreement is a type of domestic contract between two people whose relationship has broken down. The agreement will outline each person’s rights and obligations upon separation, including issues surrounding the division of property, spousal and child support as well as who is responsible for caring for the children and where they will live.
Trusts, Pensions, Taxation and Family Businesses
The aim of a family law lawyer is to secure your family and business by developing your commercial vision. This includes your personal and corporate wills; your family’s economic future; your personal and commercial investments; and smooth transition management when necessary, all while providing ongoing professional counsel and maintaining key relationships.
Family Law Appeals
A Family Law appeal depends primarily on three things: which court made the original order; what type of order was made; and is this your first or second appeal? Appeals from the Ontario Court of Justice are usually made to the Superior Court of Justice, while appeals from the Superior Court of Justice are made either to the Divisional Court or the Ontario Court of Appeal. A court order or arbitration award can be appealed on a variety of grounds, but each matter must be analyzed for its specific circumstances.
Appeals can be heard based on an error in law being applied to the case, an error of fact, or a mixed error of law or fact. Appeals require a specific skill set and knowledge that differ from litigation and must be brought and replied to promptly in order to comply with court deadlines.
Domestic Contracts
Domestic contracts govern each party’s rights and responsibilities during a relationship or after a relationship breakdown. To ensure that a marriage contract can be relied on (and will therefore be upheld by a court in the event of a challenge to the contract in the future ), parties need to ensure that they exchange full financial disclosure and obtain independent legal advice before entering into the contract.
Specific types of domestic contracts include cohabitation agreements (between people who are or who intend to cohabit but are not married), marriage contracts (between people who are or who intend to get married) and separation agreements (between parties who were in a relationship, either common-law or married, which has broken down).
Parenting Coordination
Parenting coordination involves trained professionals helping parents deal with ongoing disagreement/conflicts after decisions about parenting time and decision making (formerly known as custody and access) have already been made in a parenting agreement or court order.
Parenting coordinators guide parents on how to build a more positive co-parenting relationship that prioritizes the children’s needs. They may mediate disputes between parents and, if no resolution is reached, act as an arbitrator to make a final decision on the dispute.
Parenting coordination covers issues like children’s extracurricular activities, vacation plans, preschool and after-school childcare, communication problems, pick-up and drop-off arrangements, or minor changes to the parenting schedule and other issues between the parties in the management of their parenting issues. Major issues, such as changes in decision-making responsibility, the children’s relocation, or significant changes in the parenting schedule, typically fall outside the authority of parenting coordinators.
Mediation vs Parenting Coordination
Mediation and parenting coordination share the goal of resolving disputes using a neutral third party, but they have significant differences:
- Primary Goal: Mediators aim to help parties reach a mutually agreed solution. They don’t make decisions but facilitate finding common ground. Parenting coordinators primarily focus on resolving ongoing conflicts related to co-parenting and decision-making, often with the authority to make binding decisions on specific issues, and guided by the the parties initial court order or parenting agreement
- Process: Mediation often involves joint sessions where both parents discuss their concerns and preferences. The mediator guides the conversation but doesn’t impose decisions. Parenting coordinators can make decisions, recommendations, or directives, which may include parenting time schedules or other child-related matters. They play a more hands-on role and have a greater degree of control over the co-parenting process.
In summary, a mediator assists parties in reaching a voluntary agreement through negotiation, while a parenting coordinator plays a more active role in resolving ongoing disputes related to parenting and decision-making, often with the authority to make binding decisions. The choice between a mediator and a parenting coordinator depends on the nature of the conflict and the level of decision-making authority required to address the issues at hand.
Why Choose Hummingbird Lawyers?
Here at Hummingbird Lawyers LLP, our mediators are seasoned lawyers who are also trained in conflict resolution processes and strategies. They help parties identify the underlying issues contributing to the dispute and guide them in exploring potential solutions.
With our extensive experience and trained mediators, we carefully analyze each case to determine whether it is suited for mediation.
Our dedicated team of qualified, skilled, and experienced mediators are committed to providing you with convenient, cost-effective processes.
For more information, please contact our office to learn more about how we can assist you with your family matter.
Contact Us
Contact Jaime Dym for additional information about our wide range of family law services.
Hummingbird Lawyers LLP has two offices for your convenience. Providing qualified, skilled and experienced lawyers in Toronto and lawyers in Vaughan, we are committed to giving our clients the convenience, expertise and guidance they need.
If you’re seeking an experienced Family Lawyer fill out the form and we will reach out to you as soon as possible.
