Blog Posts
Below are our blog posts about recent developments in the areas of Estate, Family and Personal Injury law as well as comments on some recent important decisions from the BC Supreme Court, BC Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Our blogs are written by the legal minds of Richter Trial Lawyers, including our managing partner, John M. Richter.
Does pre-judgment court order interest need to be pled on retroactive periodic spousal support? The short answer is no. Court order interest, governed by the Court Order Interest Act [COIA], is mandatory on pecuniary judgments whether it is pled or not.
Recently a Vancouver judge made it clear which antics he thought were too much in divorce court. We have blogged on this site before about the importance of legal advice and what to avoid when presenting the court with affidavit evidence here and here. In the recent case of Zandbergen v. Craig, Justice Smith was […]
Spousal support orders are made on three bases: Compensatory. To compensate a spouse for their role in the relationship and sacrifices they made during the relationship for the betterment of the spouses’ lives. Non-Compensatory or Needs-Based. To ensure that one spouse does not suffer the consequences of sacrifices made during the relationship more than the […]
Since the introduction of the BC Family Law Act, the court has struggled with how a spouse may prove property is excluded. As explained in our blog Dividing Property in BC: The Proof is in the Puddin‘, the person who claims property is excluded has to show that it is excluded. The recent Court of Appeal […]
This is a cautionary tale respecting the importance of independent legal advice. On January 13, 2017, Mr. Justice Grauer of the BC Supreme Court ordered a husband to pay his ex-wife spousal support despite finding that the parties had entered two “agreements”. He found that first the wife agreed to a reduction from $8,000 to $4,000, […]
If you are not married and your claim for spousal support is pursuant to the BC Family Law Act, you must apply within one year of separation. If you are married and your claim for spousal support is pursuant to the Divorce Act, there is no time limit to apply for spousal support. This issue […]
Picture chicken little: “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”. That is the attitude most people are exhibiting in news articles in relation to the new Family Law Act that comes into force in BC today. Richter Trial Lawyers is here to say: The sky is NOT falling! Yes, common law couples are going […]