Discussions of the crisis in access to family justice tend to be dominated by a focus on procedural and institutional issues. The list of issues is a familiar one — clogged courtrooms, complex procedures, high costs, limited public and private resources, lack of access to legal advice and...

In the wake of the no fault divorce revolution policy, western jurisdictions have had to face the challenge of how to best deal with the financial consequences of matrimonial breakdown. The challenges are both substantive and procedural in nature. This chapter will explore the use of...

The child support obligation of step-parents has recently emerged as a significant issue in child support law in Canada, both for legal practitioners and government policy makers. The promises of predictability and consistency which that heralded the introduction of child support guidelines have...

In July 2008, the Final Version of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (SSAG) was released by the federal Department of Justice, after three years of intensive feedback from spouses, lawyers, mediators and judges across the country. The B.C. SSAG cases in the year since the release of the...

The philosophy behind causal connection is that spousal support should redress those economic needs flowing from or caused by the marriage and the economic inter-relationship which developed between the spouses during the marriage. Conversely, spousal support should not be expected to redress...

This article provides an overview of the challenges of defining the appropriate role for spousal support in the context of modern family law. It shows how Canadian law has met these challenges and sets out the legislative and jurisprudential framework for spousal support in Canada. The article...