The SSAG (Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines) are here. Like the gorilla at the cocktail party, everyone’s talking about them but not all of us know what they really are. So here’s a little crib sheet, the FLC SSAG Primer: What Are the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines and How Do They Apply To divorcing Canadians? Want to be able to know what they’re about without reading the whole report? Want an easy introduction to the report? Want to see the formulas? Check out the SSAG Primer now over in our Spousal Support section of our Cases & Comments.

They’re here!!! The Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines proposal was released January 27th as a draft for review and discussion. Check out the proposal itself at the Justice Department’s terrific website. You’ll want to print out and read the Executive Summary so you can look as though you know all about the plan, but the entire paper deserves a look through. We’ll have more on this in the next few days.

We’ve updated the Courts and Legislation section of the site. Now it’s as easy as 1-2-3 to find any Canadian Court or any piece of Canadian legislation.

Social worker Gary Direnfeld is a busy fellow – and he’s got lots of interesting material for both family law lawyers and clients (as well as their children) experiencing separation and divorce. Check out a variety of video clips he has on different topics. I recommend the ones dealing with Divorce, Violence at Home, Mediation, and Step Families in particular.

He’s also got some new articles of interest in the Separation/Divorce Articles section of his website, including Divorced? Have a 100% relationship with your kids, Assessment Critique: Hired gun or dispassionate opinion, and Getting Kids Out of the Cross Fire

On Wednesday, Dec. 8th, the Supreme Court of Canada gave the go-ahead to the nation’s leadership to pass legislation authorizing same-sex marriage in Canada if that was the wish of the federal Parliament. In a unanimous decision the court made it clear that same-sex marriage was an equality issue and that was constitutional. It also made it clear that religious freedom is one of our core principles and that people will not be obliged to officiate at, or perform, a gay marriage if that offends their religious beliefs. Check out their reasoning for yourself at http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/rec/html/2004scc079.wpd.html

Three new articles have been posted to the Direnfeld category of our Cases and Comments section.

Dr. Gary J. Kneier is a Clinical Psychologist in Calgary with a number of quite terrific articles dealing with children, parenting, and separation. We've collected them and made them available with a new section entitled Articles by Dr. Gary J. Kneier located in the Cases and Comments Section of our website. Check them out for some great insights and observations.

1. New FLC News Alerts have been added. Get up to date on family law happenings around the world.
2. We've added a bunch of news articles from the media. There's all sorts of
interesting family law items to read and ponder.
3. "Finding Joy In Your Children" is a new article added to the Articles by Gary. Direnfeld section of Cases and Comments. Something to keep in mind if you're going through separation and divorce.

Want to tie up the other party's assets? Check out Grant Gold's article Preservation Orders just added to Cases and Comments.

Take a look at the Family Law News section of News and Updates for an analysis of the Statistics Canada May 4th, 2004, report on divorce in Canada. Fewer Canadians are divorcing and when we do we're doing it at a later age. Beware the 14 year itch!

Check out the new Media Reports section in News & Updates. We'll be posting various family law news articles and reports here - such as the link to the May 4th Statistics Canada report on Divorce in Canada. Check the Alerts for the daily headlines and the Reports for copies of selected articles.

See the new addition of over 30 articles on Parenting Issues and Separation/Divorce Issues from Gary Direnfeld, a practicing social worker with over 20 years of experience. Good advice and info for clients needing to learn more about the new world of separation.

The Family Law and Same Sex Alerts have been updated. Check out what's happening around the world.

The S.C.C. says marriage contracts mean what they say. If you sign one, the odds are you're stuck with it. See the Case Comment on the Hartshorne decision for more.

New article added on how the courts decide for how long to make child support orders retroactive and what claimants need to show. See: When will a court make child support orders retroactive? The Ontario Court of Appeal gives the answer in Walsh v. Walsh

There’s a huge amount of news being generated in the United States concerning the issue of same-sex rights and marriage. Keep current by checking it out FLC News Alerts in the News and Updates section.

Read about Andrew Sullivan’s interesting case for a “conservative” defence of same-sex marriage in Same-sex marriage is a conservative idea, an article in Press Herald Online.

New feature! Check out the FLC News Alerts. Up to date family law news from around the world.

Divorce Act amendments off the table. Check it out.

The Language of Love: how to predict a divorce. It’s all in the formula.

Supreme Court of Canada sets the rules on spanking kids. See the FLC’s Snippet and check out the decision for yourself.

The Federal government announced it was adding a 4th question to the same-sex marriage reference to the Supreme Court of Canada.  See the New Release and 4th question.  Check out the original reference and the first 3 questions and the draft Act being proposed “respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes”.  Also check out the background info about same-sex marriages, etc.

New article has been added to the FLC Cases and Comments section:
Injunction – Junction, What’s Your Function? by Thomas Bastedo

New information has been posted:
General News | New Papers | Family Law News

Ontario Family Law lawyer? Check out “Family Law Reloaded – What’s New with Spousal and Child Support and the Reverberations of Recent Case Law” Jan. 29, 2004.

Canadian Family Law Lawyer? Check out the 2004 National Family Law Program at Le Manoir Richelieu in Quebec, July 12 – 15, 2004. A fabulous way to get your family law!

Got a client in an other province? Get mobile. 6 provinces sign the National Mobility Agreement.

Parenting Plans by Melanie Kraft

Child and Family Services Act Issues by Lorne Glass et al

Retroactive Child Support - Who's right is it anyway by Paul McInnis

Exclusions: or, “That’s What You Get For Lovin’ Me” by Stephen Grant

“I Love You Son, But You Owe Me!” by Brahm D. Siegel