Brampton Family Lawyers
Brampton Family LAWYERS. Call us today at (905) 481- 0670, Free Brampton & Ontario Lawyer Referral Service.
See the table at the bottom of this page for how to get this site for your firm. Brampton Family Lawyers Brampton family lawyers are the men and women of Bramptons legal community who handle the family law cases for the people who live in Brampton. Brampton family lawyers can handle family law matters whether the case is being heard in Brampton or in any other part of Ontario. If your family law case is in Brampton, then it can be a good idea to have a lawyer who is familiar with exactly how things work right in Brampton even if you live in some other part of Ontario. Family law encompasses a large area of law. Family law practitioners typically practice one or two other areas of law in addition to family law, but find that family law is the backbone of their practice. Family law includes (but is not limited to) the following fields:
- the preparation of prenuptial agreements,
- doing divorces,
- doing civil union separations,
- doing family law divisions of matrimonial property,
- putting together adoption applications,
- dealing with custody disputes as well as visitation and access matters,
- making child support applications,
- making spousal support or alimony applications,
- dealing with family pensions.
We will comment further about pensions and how your Brampton family lawyer and your pension can work together down below. Family lawyers increasingly have experience in other areas such as wills, estates, living wills, probate, powers of attorney and dependent adult or guardianship and trusteeship matters. In addition, many Brampton family lawyers are today also trained in mediation and use mediation as part of their practice.
For most family law lawyers, divorce matters occupy the bulk of their days. Divorce matters include the division of matrimonial property as well as custody, access and support issues. The Divorce Act of Canada sets out the ground rules for divorce. These apply all across Canada. It applies to the whole country. A copy of the Divorce Act of Canada can be viewed at the Department of Justice Canada website. Marriage is essentially a contract and a divorce is the ending of that contract. One must have grounds for divorce before a divorce will be granted, though you can start your application before the grounds are complete. In the old days the grounds for divorce was often mental cruelty or physical cruelty or adultery.
However, more recently the grounds required for divorce have changed and today in Ontario over 95% of all divorces proceed on the basis and the grounds that there has been a breakdown of the marriage and that the parties have lived separate and apart for more than one year. That's it. There is no longer a need to prove any cruelty or adultery if one has lived separate and apart for more than one year. The fact that you have lived separate and apart for one year becomes the grounds. The procedure is that either party can start divorce proceedings before the one year is up. In Brampton this is done by filing a Petition for Divorce at the appropriate Brampton court registry. Usually this is done by your Brampton family or divorce lawyer. Often the filing of a petition is accompanied with a court application for interim custody of children, visitation and child support and possibly spousal support (also known as “alimony”) as well, depending on the situation. Occasionally one party seeks a restraining order. These court applications are frequently settled via negotiation and never actually go ahead. The major concern of any custody court in Ontario is what is in the best interest of the children.
Sometimes joint custody is appropriate. Custody, access and visitation of children should be arranged with the best interests of the children in mind. Your Brampton family lawyer will be able to assist you in putting in place reasonable arrangements. They have experience in this area and this can prove really beneficial. Child support is determined according to a number of factors including the income of the parties and with reference to the very influential Child Support Guidelines. The federal Child Support Guidelines can be viewed online by searching through the Department of Justice materials or by viewing the “Supporting Families” initiative. Your Brampton family lawyer will help you in explaining these guidelines and other laws to you and in how they apply to your specific case. The Child Support Guidelines are central to any discussion of child support. A particularly useful website that deals with many of the Family Law matters that arise in Brampton, or indeed throughout Ontario is one that is run by the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario. Collecting child support or making child support payments is done through the Family Responsibility Office, which has offices in Brampton and other places throughout Ontario. It is very common for “family property” proceedings to be joined with divorce proceedings. Family property which includes but is not limited to such things as houses and furniture and cars and RRSPs and pensions and the like is not dealt with in the Divorce Act; but is dealt with in the Family Law Act of Ontario.
The Family Law Act sets out the ground rules for dividing property. The dividing of the property is separate from the getting of an actual divorce. A copy of the Family Law Act can found through the Consolidated Statutes of Ontario website. As you can see some matters in divorce situations are federal law and some are provincial law. Generally, property is divided equally. This is true no matter whose name it might happen to be in and very often this includes pensions as well. Having said this you need to be very careful in dealing with pensions and legal advice must be obtained to find out in any given situation. Pensions are tricky. Talk to a lawyer. As with the divorce issues discussed above, most property issues are resolved most of the time without the necessity of having to actually attend court. “Examinations for discovery” can be an important part of the process. Family Law Legislation Applicable To Brampton, Ontario Here is a partial list of legislation that applies to the family law area in Ontario. Any Brampton law firm that practices family law will be familiar with these.
- Divorce Act
- Family Law Act
- Child and Family Services Act
- Children’s Law Reform Act
- Domestic Violence Protection Act
- Family Responsibility and Support Arrears Enforcement Act
- Interjurisdictional Support Orders Act
Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Orders Act Copies of these can be accessed through the Consolidated Statutes of Ontario website. Your Brampton family lawyer will help you figure out what these say.
Pensions have special rules as to whether or not they are “property” under the Family Law Act of Ontario. There are a series of cases from the Ontario courts (some right from the Supreme Court of Canada) which deal with pensions in the family law context. You need to get a family law lawyer or a divorce lawyer to explain how pensions work in the context of a break up. Generally pensions are property under the act but there is much more to it than this. Often the pension built up by the major bread winner in the family is the single biggest asset that the family owns. Just because it is in “their name” does not mean that the other party has no claim to it. There is more to it and all readers are advised strongly to obtain advice from a family lawyer or a divorce lawyer on all property issues and in particular on the pension issue. Quite typically, all matters are dealt with in an agreement negotiated between the parties.
Such agreement in a matrimonial or family law or divorce law setting is often called a Minutes of Settlement agreement or a “Separation Agreement” or sometimes a “Legal Separation”. These are all pretty much the same thing. These agreements need to be witnessed by lawyers to meet the legislative requirements and to have maximum effect and enforceability. Getting divorced is a major event in life. Get legal advice at the earliest possible time. It really can make a difference. And if getting divorced for a second or subsequent time the same is true. The issues of divorce, custody, visitation, child support, alimony and property can be extremely emotional. These do not necessarily have to become confrontational or combative experiences, though they sometimes do.
If all parties keep their emotions in check and are represented by capable lawyers, then it is very much the norm for all matters to be resolved without the necessity of court proceedings but rather, via agreement between the parties negotiated with the help of capable counsel. Frequently examinations for discovery are held which assist in resolving the issues. Over 80% of all cases are dealt with via negotiation and without having to go to court. City of Brampton The City of Brampton is the 11th largest city in Canada and is located in southern Ontario, in the Peel region. It was originally incorporated in 1853 and is today one of the fastest growing areas of Ontario and indeed all of Canada. It has a population of around 450,000. Brampton has good access to the Pearson International Airport and as such is home to many corporate head offices, plants and warehouses. Both the Canadian National and former Canadian Pacific railroads have presence in Brampton.
The City of Brampton is a typical, advanced municipal website which is divided up into a number of intuitive sections. The site contains a decent search feature. If you are looking for Brampton bylaws, a search for these will bring you over 150 results, reasonably divided up into sections. If you search the site for “lawyers” you will get just 8 responses and this civic website is not really of any use in helping one find legal services of a family lawyer in Brampton. Our service is much more effective. If you are looking for a Brampton family lawyer, we can help you. Try our service today!
Every lawyer in Ontario must be registered with the Law Society of Upper Canada and they are regulated by the Law Society of Upper Canada. They have to be in good standing with the Law Society in order to practice. Your more involved Brampton lawyers will also be members of the Family Law subsection of the Ontario Bar Association and possibly the Pensions and Benefits subsection as well. These are under the Canadian Bar Association. You can click here to get information and location about any Court House in Brampton. Calm, experienced family law counsel can help to keep things under control. It is important , in considering who your Brampton family lawyer is going to be, that you select one that is practical, experienced and knowledgeable of exactly how things work in Brampton. They should have an office in Brampton which is staffed full time and have been there for some time. Experience is important. We are that counsel for a lawyer referral. We are that law firm referral company. We are your Family Lawyers referral company. Brampton, Ontario Lawyers – See below for how to acquire this site for YOU or YOUR LAW FIRM. Free Brampton & Ontario Lawyer Referral Service – Call: (905) 481- 0670.’