Document Disclosure
During the course of your matrimonial file you will be asked by your lawyer to produce a number of documents. These will include personal documents relating to your finances, including but not limited to bank account statements, credit card statements and other what you could perceive as personal material that you may or may not want your estranged spouse to have access to. In dealing with support issues, document disclosure with respect to income and expenses becomes relevant. Often, innocent omissions with respect to the disclosure of documents can be used by the other side’s lawyer as fodder to allege that you have failed to disclose or are guilty of blameworthy conduct giving rise to retroactive adjustments and corrections with respect to child or spousal support. These are all things that you want to avoid like the plague.
In order to make your lawyer’s job easier, which of course is something we all want to do, and to minimize your legal costs, which is something that you will most definitely want to do, we recommend that you as the client take the steps to collect all of the relevant documents as sought by your lawyer as early in the process as possible. If at all possible, you can organize these documents chronologically, which again will save you time and legal fees and will make your lawyer’s life much earlier (more appropriately your lawyer’s secretary’s life much easier). Full and frank disclosure with respect to the financial assets and financial means of each individual allows a proper resolution of matters either by court order or negotiated settlement.
Initially, your lawyer will likely request that you give us the documents back six months predating date of separation. This practice allows for us to look at a pre-separation pattern of behavior to ensure that there has been no changes post separation. When we request documents of the other side, this is the usual scope of how far back we will ask. There may be circumstances where going back further will be necessary either based on information provided to us by you during the course of our interview process or alternatively, based on what we see in the initial request for documents.
It is important that you discuss disclosure with your lawyer and follow their advice on that issue.
RAH
Posted: July 14th, 2011 under Uncategorized.
Maintenance on the Death of a Party
When a party to litigation between spouses passes away, a question can arise as to the status of litigation regarding ongoing child and spousal maintenance. In Crain v. Crain 1996 CarswellBC 1174, the Supreme Court dealt with the issue by finding that maintenance is a personal right that abates upon the death of either the party paying or the party receiving that maintenance. In other words, under normal circumstances, if one party dies, maintenance stops.
But what happens if one of the parties was pursuing an application to cancel or reduce arrears of maintenance? The court found (at para. 16) that an application to vary or cancel arrears, “… must be made by a spouse or former spouse and those terms do not extend to a corpse, an estate, or a personal representative.” Because of this, any application to change maintenance owing also abates upon the death of either party. Which means that if you intend on applying to varying or cancel arrears, it’s best to do it while you’re alive.
Posted: November 19th, 2010 under Case Analysis, Child Support, Spousal Support, Uncategorized.
Tags: arrears, cancel, death, Maintenance, variation, vary
Court Services Online
In family law, the question of someone’s background is sometime a relevant factor. The Ministry of the Attorney General has provided, through its Court Services Online website, a valuable starting point for an investigation of a person’s criminal justice history. Though limited to British Columbia and to provincial court records the site provides information which would otherwise take time and resources to uncover.
Posted: October 8th, 2010 under Uncategorized.
Henderson Heinrichs watches some guy run past with a torch!
Posted: February 12th, 2010 under Uncategorized.
Welcome
Welcome to the Henderson Heinrichs Vancouver Divorce Law Blog. Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, our firm focuses exclusively on the full range of issues related to divorce and family law matters in British Columbia.
This blog is a space where the lawyers at Henderson Heinrichs will offer commentary and observations on the practice of family law, on recent developments in the area, and on topics which may help people going through a divorce or family law situation.
At Henderson Heinrichs our lawyers handle a diverse range of family law matters. Our day-to-day experience helping clients deal with separation and divorce, child custody and support, division of assets, common law and same sex marriage rights and obligations gives us a unique vantage point. We are able to identify trends in legislation and caselaw in family law and witness firsthand how this affects people living in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia.
We want to create a space through which we can be part of the dialogue and share some of our collective wisdom on how people can help themselves, their friends or family members during a very stressful time. We know that people facing a family law problem often feel completely overwhelmed by the system. In what is already a time of stress and uncertainty, people are faced with a tangle of rules, regulations and paperwork. One of the things we want to do with this blog is to help dispel some of the anxiety caused by lack of clear information about the mechanics of the separation and divorce process. It’s hard to make good decisions when you don’t know where to begin or even what is possible.
So, welcome to our blog. This is a new project for all of us here at Henderson Heinrichs and it will undoubtedly be a learning experience. We hope you find it interesting and useful and invite you to check back often for new posts by our lawyers. You are always welcome to (contact) info (at) bcfamilylawyers (dot) com one of our lawyers to discuss your situation further if you feel you need help with a specific legal problem.
Posted: November 9th, 2009 under Uncategorized.
