What to Expect When Working with Toronto Family Lawyers

Toronto family lawyers are highly qualified to handle a range of problems that may arise in a marriage, civil union, or domestic partnership. Some of the problems that they can deal with in court for a family law case include the following:

• Divorce
• Separation
• Spousal support
• Child support
• Visitation rights
• Annulment
• Property settlements
• Alimony payments
• Parental responsibility orders
• Legitimacy
• Spousal abuse
• Child abuse
• Child custody
• Child kidnapping
• Adoption
• Surrogacy
• Child abduction
• Prenuptial agreements
• Grandparent visitation
• Paternity tests

Not every family lawyer will have the qualifications and experience to handle all aspects of family law.  Some will focus their practice on child visitation or support agreements and will have the knowledge and skills to help you through custody disputes, fight for your visitation rights and protect your rights in a paternity hearing.

Divorce attorneys are highly skilled in laws relating to the dissolution of marriage, including the laws comprising the division of property, spousal support, child custody, and child support.

Adoption & surrogacy solicitors are family lawyers who have particular expertise in legal issues surrounding Adoption Law and Surrogacy Law. They have acquired the experience necessary to deal with the legal framework involved in these practice areas as well as deal with the sensitive issues in regards to children and their prospective parents.

If you’re getting married, there are qualified family lawyers who can help you figure out how your marriage will affect your finances, properties and other assets and offer legal advice on drafting a prenuptial agreement to protect your wealth in case your marriage ends, or draft documents that will financially and legally protect your estate in the event of an untimely death.

Always check the qualifications and credentials of a lawyer to verify that he is specialized in specific practice areas that  you are looking for to make sure that you hire the right type of lawyer for your needs.

Do You Need a Toronto Family Lawyer?

Toronto Family Lawyer

When a marriage or relationship breaks down, parents are forced to make decisions about how and with whom the children will live. In some cases, decisions can be made with or without the help of a Toronto family lawyer. However, when both the parents disagree they will need to seek out legal advice to understand their rights and obligations in obtaining custody or access.

Custody technically means having the legal right and responsibility to make decisions for the child’s welfare and upbringing which can be related to health, education, religion and other major issues that may greatly affect the formation of the child. Decisions that are made day-to-day, such as schedules, diet restrictions, vacations, etc. do not form part of custody and are made with the parent who the child lives with at the moment.

There are different types of custody:

Sole custody is when only one parent has rights and responsibilities to make decisions concerning the child. Whether the other parent agrees or disagrees with any decisions the custodial parent makes will not matter at all. In addition, the child lives all the time, or most of the time, with the custodial parent.

In a joint custody both of the child’s parents may take turns having the child live with them and they share equal time and rights and responsibilities in making decisions that affect the child. One parent cannot make a final decision without the agreement of the other.

A split custody happens when each parent has custody of one or more of the children. For example, the older child stays with the father who has rights and responsibilities over him, and the younger children live with the mother who has custody over them.

A shared custody is when both parents are given joint custody, which means the child lives for an equal length of time with each of them.

Access rights such as visiting rights and outing rights are given to the parent who does not have full custody of the child. Access indicates the level of contact the parent can have with the child. If a child lives primarily with one parent, the other parent can see the child on an agreed schedule.

Custody and access decisions can be made in two ways. The first is through a separation agreement. This is possible only if the parents have civil relations with each other as they will have to sit down in the presence of a lawyer and make decisions together for the best interest of the child. Decisions that are made during the course of discussion are put down on paper and signed by both parties along with witnesses. This document is referred to as the ‘parenting plan’ or ‘parenting agreement.’

In situations wherein both parents are uncooperative and cannot come up with an agreement, then they are forced to have the court decide on who obtains custody of their child. Custody and access court cases can become costly and complicated, especially when a case cannot be resolved with just one trial. In this case, the legal proceedings can be drawn-out for months and affect you and your child for the rest of your lives.

Before deciding to go to court, it is advisable to meet with a lawyer. A family lawyer in Toronto can advise you on what evidence to gather to support your case and create an action plan to help you build your case to ensure that the court rules in your favor.

How Much Do Family Law Lawyers Cost?

Family law lawyers give advice and fight for their clients on many issues such as separation agreements, divorce, spousal support, matrimonial home considerations, custody and access and child support. How much their services will cost will depend on the complexity of the particular case at hand.

According to a 2015 survey by Canadian Lawyer Mag, for an uncontested divorce, for example, costs can range from $974 up to $1,588. Costs for contested divorces average as low as $4,336 up to as high as $25,417. When a trial is involved, average costs can be anywhere from $19,625 to $44,000, depending on the number of days the trial lasts. No matter how much the costs, you can be assured that lawyers will bill you for services rendered.

In most cases, when lawyer’s bill a client it will include a request for payment for lawyer’s fees and disbursements. Fees refer to the cost of your lawyer’s time, while disbursements are other related costs that the lawyer incurs for working on your case, such as expenses for photocopying, mailing and faxing. Lawyers will also ask clients to pay for any substantial costs incurred on the client’s behalf such as process server fees or court filing fees, the cost of hiring experts and costs for obtaining reports (such as medical reports).

Your lawyer may ask you to pay for disbursements and other costs upfront, or he can include these in his billing for his fees. There are several ways that lawyers may bill clients:

Retainer

In a retainer agreement, you pay the lawyer a deposit in order to retain his services throughout the duration of your case. The deposit amount is usually a percentage of what the lawyer expects his total bill will be at the end of the case. Generally, lawyers do not start working on any case until the retainer fee is paid.

Hourly Basis

A common arrangement in Canada is to pay lawyers by the hour. This means that your lawyer will bill you for every hour he spends working on your case. Typically, this will include phone calls he makes, relaying instructions to his assistant/secretary, taking documents to the court, and some lawyers will even bill you for hours spent driving to get to court. To avoid any conflict, you and your lawyer must agree from the start on what costs should be billed to you. On an hourly rate basis, a lawyer may bill you weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, depending on what arrangement is most affordable to you. In a retainer arrangement, the lawyer will bill hourly rates against the retainer fee. In this case, he will send a statement enumerating all costs paid from the retainer. Once the retainer is used up, your lawyer will ask you to provide another retainer fee or deposit.

Flat Rate

Lawyers are sometimes paid on a flat rate. In this case, a client pays a fixed amount for the service, no matter how much time a lawyer spends on it. This is usually for one-time services like drafting a Separation Agreement or notarizing a simple will. It is very unlikely for family law lawyers to work on a complex case for a flat rate, unless for some very special cases that have a cause for them.

Sliding Scale

In this type of payment arrangement, a lawyer will charge lower fees for low income clients. Typically, a client is required to present proof of income and assets to be considered on this basis.

Fees for family law lawyers and overall expenses for filing cases in court can reach excessive amounts. Whether you are being charged $250 or $50,000, make sure that your lawyer understands family law thoroughly and gives honest advice so that you get real value for the money you pay.