In MacDonald v. MacDonald 2025 ABKB 72 Justice Lema considered several important issues that often present themselves in family law cases.
The first question posed was whether post-separation Mr. MacDonald was obliged to pay child and spousal support during the three-year period his salary, dividends, and share sale proceeds were deposited into the parties’ joint…
Family law cases often involve an exercise of tracing to determine the value of excluded property that has been co-mingled with divisible family property. In Millsv. O’Connor 2025 BCCA 34 the Court of Appeal tackles this issue, providing their analysis of the appropriate approach in the context of a difficult and complicated family property situation.…
Chapman v. Chapman 2024 BCCA 372 is an example of a family case that considered complex corporate assets and the unique valuation and division of property by way of sealed bids and a “butterfly” transaction, otherwise known as a “corporate divorce”, to facilitate the division of corporate property and eliminate an immediate capital gains tax…
A case from British Columbia presents with a married couple who each brought a child from a previous relationship into their marriage. In Sullivan v. Struck 2015 BCCA 521, the parties began living together in April 2003 and married in August 2007. Mr. Struck’s daughter, Sydney, was one and a half years old when the relationship began…
In yet another highly acrimonious family law trial, C.K.C. v. P.R.C., 2024 BCSC 279, the court was asked to address multiple issues including parenting time, child support, the division of property and excluded property, all in the context of a highly unusual case, where the self-represented father announced to the court on day three of…
The British Columbia Court of Appeal delivered reasons in P.R.C. v. C.K.C., 2024 BCCA 363, a high-conflict case, where the self-represented husband abandoned the trial on day three, only to file an appeal of the financial orders on the grounds of procedural unfairness.
However, he did not seek a new trial — rather, he asked…
George Chuvalo was a Canadian professional boxer of some renown, winning five heavyweight Canadian titles and was a two-time heavyweight world title challenger, sparring with the likes of Mohammed Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman.
In Chuvalo v. Chuvalo, 2018 ONSC 311, the court was asked to consider whether George Chuvalo had the capacity to…
The parties in Parviziv. Taherzadeh, 2024 BCCA 205, were in the midst of their 10-day trial when an issue arose as to the value of a property, alleged by Mesbah Taherzadeh to be excluded property. The issue on appeal was whether Taherzadeh bore the onus of proving both that the property was excluded, and the…
The court’s observation in June 2021 that the litigation between TO and DO was “fast and furious…heading for a very lengthy and expensive trial” was prescient, a legal journey with 4 hearings in the Superior Court, and the sad death of TO in August 2023, culminating in a final appeal that took 4 hearings, with…
The Bye’s divorced in 2010. In 2015 they entered into a consent order for child support for their two children, who were then 10 and 12 years old. The youngest child turned 19 in August of 2019 and the eldest attained the age of 19 in February 2021. Both remained in the primary residence of Ms. Bye.…
