Federal Child Support Guidelines

The Guidelines are actually Regulations to the amended Divorce Act, rather than independent legislation. This makes it easy for the government of the day to change the Guidelines without having to change the legislation. (In fact, the Guidelines havbe been amended 3 times since the time they were intorduced in May, 1997, most recently with amendments effective for November 1st, 2000) You can read the amended version of the Divorce Act as it looks with all of the changes incorporated into it at the federal government's legislative site: The Divorce Act.

The Department of Justice Canada has a terrific web site with all sorts of information about the Guidelines, including the text of the Guidelines, the Divorce Act, and other goodies. One of the most useful parts of the federal site is: The Federal Child Support Guidelines: A List of Selected Case Law and Summaries which lists a grouping of cases, with a brief synopsis, dealing with the various provisions of the Guidelines and is a great way to see how the courts are interpreting them. This annotated list is updated regularly, with the mopst recent update being November 1st, 2000. For other cases dealing with the guidelines and a brief comment about what the case says, check out Snippets: Child Support Guideline (CSG) Cases, a feature here at the FLC and accessable from the home page.

The FLC has lots of other information about the Child Support Guidelines both here and elsewhere. Check it out so that you can be up to date. You can also read the government's 10 Things You Need to Know to see what they think you should know or our FLC Child Support Guidelines FAQs to see what we think you should know.