The federal Child Support Guidelines have been in operation since May 1^st, 1997. The Department of Justice has a really great website filled with all sorts of relevant and useful information regarding the Guidelines. This includes, of course, copies of the legislation and of the Tables as well as informaiton you should know about the Guidelines and a terrifc section in which they collect cases from across the country which discuss how the judges are interpreting the various sections. This is very helpful information for both lawyers and non-lawyers.

From their main Child Support Home Page you can link to a variety of sections.

About Child suppoort in Canada gives a limited overview of the legislation.

10 Things You Need to Know ssets out a FAQ section with relevant information for those not familiar with the CSGs.

Eight Steps to Calculating Child Support takes you through how to determine what you owe or are entitled to.

Laws and Regulations takes you to copies of the legislation setting out the Divorce Act, the Guidelines, and the Tables so you can see these things for yourself. As well, this is the page which takes you into the List of Selected Case Law and Summaries dealing with the CSGs.

Federal Child Support Guidelines: A List of Selected Case Law and Summaries This is the actual listing and summary page. It's a great resource and has been brought up to date as at September, 2000.

The Survey of Child Support Awards: Preliminary Analysis of Phase 2 Data (October 1998--May 1999) by Lorne D. Bertrand, Joseph P. Hornick and Nicholas M.C. Bala (CSR 2000- 2E/2F) is a wonderful peice of research giving us an idea of what is happening on a statistical basis. Some of the main research findings are:

In just over 80 percent of cases (80.6) the mother had sole custody, while the father had sole custody in 8.4 percent of cases.

Shared custody, where the child spends at least 40 percent of the time with each parent, was reported in 5.2 percent of cases.

Split custody, where each parent has custody of one or more of their children, was reported in 4.8 percent of cases.

Most awards were the same as the amounts in the Federal Child Support Tables (59.4 percent), or greater (34.2 percent). Only 6.4 percent of cases reported award amounts less than the table amounts.

Check this out for more information.

Links to related sites includes useful links including one to thhe Statistics Canada page dealing with Families.

Publications takes you to the Tables, various Wrokbooks and other material.

All in all, this is one great site! It shows how a government should be using the Internet to make information available to the affected public. (You can convert any page you are on into French by clicking on the button at the top.) The site is attractive and is very well organized. It looks clean and is easy to read and is a resource to which lawyers should be directing those of their clients who have access to the Internet and which you should be familiar wiht to be sure that you have the infornmation you need.