Our Best South Asian Family Lawyer Tips help our high net worth South Asian and Punjabi speaking family law clients win their family law cases. Our Best South Asian Family Lawyers know Punjabi and South Asian clients, more often, than not fail to get the proper best South Asian family lawyers advice to protect themselves and their children. Hiring a South Asian family law specialist who deals with South Asian and Punjabi divorce cases will ensure you don’t end up suffering financially.
MacLean Law has a stellar record of wins for clients and local and national awards including top 25 lawyers in Canada, Best Family Law Firm in Canada, top high net worth divorce lawyer in Vancouver and more.
3 Best South Asian Separation Tips 604 602 9000
MacLean Law routinely sets records for high net worth South Asian family separation cases. In today’s blog Gurdeep Khosa, ranked as Lexpert’s “One To Watch” winners explains the special factors we see in our Punjabi and South Asian high net worth family law dispute cases. We hope these Best South Asian Family Lawyer Tips help you move forward successfully. Hiring the best South Asian family lawyers who actually have a track record of winning these cases is key. Make sure your lawyer is truly experienced as a Best South Asian Family Lawyer.
Fraser and Lorne MacLean, KC’s most recent high conflict, high net worth case resulted in our husband client winning hundreds of thousands of child support and a complete dismissal of his wife’s million dollar spousal support claim.
Many lawyers say they handle big South Asian family law cases but we encourage you to perform proper due diligence in this area to make sure you find the best South Asian high net worth family lawyers.
3 Best Tips on How to Deal with Marital Breakdown in the South Asian Community
Dealing with marital breakdown in the majority of the South Asian community, is still, unfortunately, considered “taboo.” Many South Asian women stay in toxic marriages for the sake of family honour, pride, obligation, children, or finances. Our top high net worth South Asian family lawyers are also aware that for a woman a divorce can lead to a stigma for the woman that is unjustified. It is important to know your legal rights upon marital breakdown and understand that it is important to leave a toxic relationship rather than being obligated to staying in one.
South Asian Family Property Division 604 602 9000
Quite often, in the South Asian community, women are living in joint households with their husbands along with extended family members, not limited to but including their mother-in-law, father-in-law, and various other individuals. The question arises: what is your property interest, given the fact that the married woman may have been residing in a joint household with her husband’s extended family?
All property owned by either or both spouses (including property owned by a spouse jointly with a third party such as a parent) at the date of separation is family property unless it is excluded property. Family property includes real property and personal property. These include: bank accounts, pensions, businesses, debts owing to a spouse, and so forth. Family property is presumed to be shared equally between spouses, subject to certain exceptions.
In the above scenario, the married woman may have claims under the law of trusts and common law in relation to the household property as well. Cases where all family members work jointly in family businesses, farms and other extended family ventures can raise complicated questions of who owns what.
We warn South Asian and Punjabi speaking spouses to not listen to ill-informed friends, extended family members or even elders before getting legal advice that will advise you that the default position in dividing family property is 50/50. Don’t take less and expect to get out of a disastrously bad deal you were forced into or that you made foolishly and without full disclosure of your spouse’s income or property. Hire us to protect you from the start. You and your children will thank us.
South Asian Family Violence 604 602 9000
The unfortunate reality is that it is common for South Asian women to be the victims of family violence. It is important to know your legal rights as it pertains to family violence.
“family violence” includes, with or without an intent to harm a family member,
(a) physical abuse of a family member, including forced confinement or deprivation of the necessities of life, but not including the use of reasonable force to protect oneself or others from harm,
(b) sexual abuse of a family member,
(c) attempts to physically or sexually abuse a family member,
(d) psychological or emotional abuse of a family member, including
(i) intimidation, harassment, coercion or threats, including threats respecting other persons, pets or property,
(ii) unreasonable restrictions on, or prevention of, a family member’s financial or personal autonomy,
(iii) stalking or following of the family member, and
(iv) intentional damage to property, and
(e) in the case of a child, direct or indirect exposure to family violence;
The Honourable Justice Schultes has stated that:
“The broad and inclusive definition of “family violence” recognizes that the kinds of harm that can be inflicted in this situation extend beyond the infliction of physical violence.”
Morgadinho v. Morgadinho 2014 BCSC 192, paragraph 59
South Asian Family Spousal Support 604 602 9000
It is your legal right to know that you may also be entitled to spousal support. In marriages with children even if short or in long marriages where children have grown up substantial spousal support is likely payable on compensatory and non-compensatory grounds.
Bothe the Divorce Act and the BC Family Law Act imposes a duty on spouses to provide support when entitlement is established Section 165 of the Act provides that on application by a spouse or, if applicable, an adult guardian on their behalf, a court may grant an order for spousal support after taking s. 160 into account.
The s.161 objectives for determining entitlement to spousal support are:
161 In determining entitlement to spousal support, the parties to an agreement or the court must consider the following objectives:
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(a) to recognize any economic advantages or disadvantages to the spouses arising from the relationship between the spouses or the breakdown of that relationship;
(b) to apportion between the spouses any financial consequences arising from the care of their child, beyond the duty to provide support for the child;
(c) to relieve any economic hardship of the spouses arising from the breakdown of the relationship between the spouses;
(d) as far as practicable, to promote the economic self-sufficiency of each spouse within a reasonable period of time.
The criteria for determining entitlement to spousal support are set out in s. 162 of the Family Law Act:
162 The amount and duration of spousal support, if any, must be determined on consideration of the conditions, means, needs and other circumstances of each spouse, including the following:
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(a)the length of time the spouses lived together;
(b)the functions performed by each spouse during the period they lived together;
(c)an agreement between the spouses, or an order, relating to the support of either spouse
Here is a nice summary of factors for when and how much support is payable particularly in South Asian cases:
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- When you were married or living together, did one of you stay home to look after the children so the other person could work or study? Or did one of you work part-time so the other person could work or study? In South Asian marriages often the wife stays at home to support both children and extended family;
- Was one person’s career more important than the other’s? Did one person have to focus more on the family and household while the other person focused on work? Did you move so the other person could get a better job or move up in their career?
- Will either of you find it hard to get a job because you’ve been out of the workforce to look after the children or the household?
- Were either of you financially dependent on the other throughout the relationship?
- Will your standard of living go down or your spouse’s go up significantly because your relationship has ended?
- Will your standard of living and the other person’s standard of living be very different?
- Will you need financial help for a while to become self-sufficient (provide everything you need for yourself without help)?
- In South Asian Marriages it is common for the wife to stay at home entirely and raise the children which means spousal support is likely to be significant and for a long term
Don’t Be Bullied In South Asian Family Separation Cases 604 602 9000
We act for Punjabi speaking wealthy husbands and wives to ensure they are not forced into unfair agreements that leave them and their children in an unfair and sometimes desperate financial positions. Don’t listen to well meaning friends or relatives or even elders who have no real understanding of BC family law. We’ve seen too many Punjabi and South Asian family law disasters when spouses make homemade and grossly unfair deals. Don’t you deserve a fair settlement?
