Parenting arrangements after a separation agreement
Decision: 2019 BCSC 1856 · Court: Supreme Court of British Columbia · Date: October 30, 2019 · Read the full decision on CanLII →
Counsel’s Comments
“Beware of what you pay for: The BC Provincial Court System through their Family Justice Centres offer free services to parties in family litigation. They provide accredited family mediators to assist parties in coming to agreements in order to avoid trial, and at the conclusion of the mediation the Family Justice Counsellor will draft a separation agreement based on the outcome of the negotiation. Here’s the problem: Family Justice Counsellors are usually not lawyers, and the agreements they generate can be disastrous. Case in point: when the parties separated they had four children all under the age of four years old. The Family Justice Counsellor negotiated an agreement whereby our client would have the children in his care Wednesdays overnight and alternate weekends. Unfortunately, there were no provisions in the agreement for a review of his parenting time as the children grew older, or for summer vacations or holidays (Christmas, Easter, Father’s Day, birthdays, etc.). As time went on, our client asked for more parenting time, but his ex-wife refused, relying on the strict terms of the separation agreement. Following a 12-day trial to overturn the parenting arrangements in the separation agreement, our client was awarded a 50-50 shared parenting schedule. Because he now had his children 50% of the time, his child support obligation was reduced. The court found his ex-wife to be so unreasonable that she lost parental decision-making authority; our client was given sole responsibility for making all significant child-related decisions. His ex-wife’s conduct was found to be so egregious and deserving of rebuke that our client was also awarded special court costs against her. There are actually two morals to this story: Do not sign off on a separation agreement without obtaining competent legal advice and, when facing an unreasonable spouse, immediatly hire an experienced litigator.”
— Matthew Brandon
Legal issue
Whether the existing parenting terms continued to serve the children’s needs and what parenting schedule should govern their care.
Judicial outcome
The court made a shared parenting order, adjusted child support to reflect the new schedule, and made further parenting decision-making orders.