BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers help family law clients share the costs of raising children as well as the responsibility to raise their children. With shared custody, both parents share the joy and the burdens of raising children more equally. BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers know raising children on a shared basis is no less expensive than having them raised primarily by one parent after separation and often costs more because of duplication of certain expenses. Hiring experienced BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers helps ensure a fair result. Call us toll free across BC to meet with us in Vancouver, Surrey, Kelowna, Richmond and Dawson Creek, Fort St John at 1-877-602-9900.
BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers- You Have To Be Careful To Avoid Spousal Support Calculation Mistakes
Sometimes parents, and their lawyers forget to get full credit for the costs of sharing childcare duties and financial responsibilities. A mistake can lead to someone paying more spousal support than they should. The top rated* BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers at Maclean Law have the experience to negotiate a fair sharing of child custody duties and to properly calculate the correct amount of spousal support. Our BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers see far too many mistakes in this area.
*(Top Choice Award (2014, 2016, 2017), top rated reviews on Google, Yelp, threebestrated, lawerratingz.com).
BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers – Make Sure To Avoid A “Have” Versus “Have Not” Household When Parties Share Custody Equally
A line of cases says the net disposable income of parties who each have the same number of people in their household half the time should be shared 50/50. This thinking is based on the reasonable theory that one parent’s home should not have more than half the disposable income and one parent’s less than half if their circumstances are identical.
Section 7 expenses also impact spousal spousal support calculations. Clients and their family lawyers need to be very careful that a mistake is not made leaving one household financially as a “have not household” and one household having a significantly higher standard of living in a shared 50/50 custody situation.
BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers – Shouldn’t Shared Custody Reduce The Duration Of Spousal Support?
Further, might shared custody alleviate some economic disadvantages to one spouse by sharing post separation child care more fairly freeing up both parents and not just one to work equally hard on their careers? If this is a possible outcome, shouldn’t the duration of spousal support be shorter? Not a lot of case analysis has occurred on this critical topic.
Until more focus on the benefits of shared parenting on reducing possible economic disadvantage occurs, we encourage spouses to think very hard about putting their financial eggs into one basket with a breadwinner/ homemaker formula versus a modern marriage. Encouraging both spouse’s to share childcare duties and focus on both of their careers during their relationship may well be better for the family that remains intact. It is certainly better for both spouses and their children in the event of the marriage breakdown.
BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers – Reduced Duration And Faster Self Sufficiency For Shared Custody?/h2>
In K.B. v. J.B. the court ordered midpoint SSAG spousal support using shared custody at $2182 per month after child support factored in. Interestingly, the court did assess the impact of shared parenting and the fact the children were in school. It also noted the wife’s efforts to retrain and work were less than robust.
Nevertheless, the court ordered a duration of 9 years being right in the midpoint of the minimum to maximum duration given the 12 year duration of their relationship. More puzzling was the apparently agreed position of the parties that 65% of the husband’s net income was being paid to the wife in combined child and spousal support.
Finally, the court did not order a review of spousal support although if the wife did obtain work the husband would be entitled to argue this was a material change justifying a reduction of the onerous spousal support payment.
D. Duration of Spousal Support
[96] The parties were married in February 20[0]1 and separated in January 2013. In the Reasons, I fixed K.B.’s income and J.B.’s imputed income at $130,600 and $25,000 respectively; Reasons at paras. 232, 235-236. The spousal support claim advanced by J.B. was both compensatory and needs-based in nature.
[97] At trial, I observed that J.B. hoped to obtain a teaching position in 2016; Reasons at para. 234. This, for reasons that are not clear, has not materialized and J.B. has, instead, renewed her real estate licence. She has just recently commenced her employment.
[98] Based on the relevant Divorcemate calculations, spousal support should be payable for a minimum of approximately six years and a maximum of approximately 12 years – the mid-range being approximately nine years. K.B. asks that spousal support terminate within three years of the date of the Reasons or in December 2018. This would effectively provide J.B. with spousal support for six years. K.B. also proposes that there be no further review of spousal support at that time.
[99] I do not consider that spousal support for this length of time would be appropriate. It would not adequately recognize the compensatory component of J.B.’s entitlement to spousal support. It would also not adequately recognize that J.B. has not worked in the Canadian labour force in the past.
[100] At the same time, it was clear, at trial, that J.B.’s efforts to secure employment had been very modest; Reasons at para. 234. Nearly a further year has elapsed without J.B. securing employment. Thus, more than three-and-a-half years have elapsed since the parties separated, during which time J.B. has not earned any income.
[101] At trial (Reasons at para. 236), I emphasized that J.B. was bright, educated and spoke several languages. Her children are with her only half the time and they are both in school. It is important and necessary that J.B. focus on her career and employment in order to establish her economic independence. Furthermore, K.B. has deposed that his child and spousal support obligations, including s. 7 expenses, consume approximately 65% of his net monthly pay. Though this seems very high, these figures were not questioned before me.
[102] Aspects of these considerations are addressed at s. 8.6.3 of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines where the authors observe:
Where the recipient has little or no income, she or he will have a greater need for increased support in the short run. But the shared custody arrangement will reduce the impact of ongoing child care upon the recipient’s employment prospects, such that progress towards self-sufficiency should occur more quickly. In these cases, spousal support will likely be reduced in the near future on review or variation, and the duration of support may be shorter.
[103] In the circumstances, I consider that J.B. should be entitled to spousal support for a period of nine years, or until January 2022. I also consider that it would be inappropriate to order that a review take place at the end of that period.
[104] In Leskun v. Leskun, 2006 S.C.C. 25, the Court, at para. 39, confirmed that to the extent possible “…. courts should resolve the controversies before them and make an order which is permanent subject only to change under s. 17 on proof of a change of circumstances.”
[105] J.P. was 36 or 37 years old when the parties separated. There is no objective reason that she should not be able to achieve economic independence and self-sufficiency within the timeframe I have allowed. Still further, though her future employment and economic prospects are, at present, somewhat uncertain, aspects of that uncertainty are of her making.
Call our BC Shared Custody Spousal Support Lawyers toll free at 1-877-602-9900 if you have concerns over obtaining a fair amount of child and spousal support in a shared custody situation.
