ice hockeyWith the Leafs’ season fading fast, the Raptors never really in contention this year and the Jays dropping off the divisional radar screen before the last half of the season each year since 1995, perhaps you might say “Who cares which spouse ends up with the tickets to the losers?”.

But as the expression goes – “Hope springs eternal!” 

Just think of those long-suffering Boston Red Sox fans:  Their team had not won a World Series since 1918 due to the rumoured “Curse of the Bambino”.  But now, in the past several years, they have won 2 Series, coming out of, arguably, the toughest division in baseball (hence the Jays’ tale of woe).

Now, let’s just imagine (and it doesn’t take much) that the Leafs turn their fortunes around and become legitimate contenders.  Can you imagine the increased interest in Leafs’ season tickets?

And now for the “interesting” family law questions about those season tickets.

When married spouses separate they will have to value their “property” as at the Date of Separation (called “Valuation Date” in Ontario family law language).  Season tickets are ‘property’.

If one spouse owns season tickets and sometimes uses the tickets for business or marketing purposes or, if they have re-sold their tickets from time to time (of course in totally legal ways) or  if they have owned season tickets for several years, then interesting questions arise as to the worth of the tickets for the remainder of the season; and the value of the ‘right’ to purchase the season tickets in the coming years or even playoff tickets.

The legal concept of “value” comes into play in such a determination.  The “value” of the tickets may no longer simply be the face value of the tickets multiplied by the number of remaining games – much more sophisticated considerations may have to be made.  What could the tickets go for on the open market?  If the Leafs make it to the playoffs, then what would the additional value of playoff tickets be?  I guess it depends, in part, on how far the Leafs go in the playoffs…

If the separating spouses cannot agree on such matters as the value of the tickets, and they end up going to court over this (and presumably other) issues, then a court would be asked to determine the value of the season tickets as  “property”.   In doing so,  the court will rely on expert evidence from a valuator with professional experience and training in establishing the value of unique assets such as this.

One interesting principle that will come into play is that the valuator (and the court) must determine the value of the tickets as at the Valuation Date and the court and valuator cannot take into account events that occur after the Valuation Date in determining the value.   So the value may depend, in part, on at what point in the season the spouses separated?  Were any key players on the team injured at the time of separation, and how long were they expected to be on the injured list, etc, etc?

We have not even discussed who owns the tickets and therefore who gets to keep them.   In some cases it may be easy to establish ownership.  The sports team records may show that owner is in just one of the spouses name’s and it is that spouse who has paid for the season tickets each year. But what if the team’s records show both the husband and wife as owners?  Who gets to keep the tickets in that case?   Who owns the right to be on the list for season tickets in subsequent years?

As you can see, I have many more questions than I do answers.  This is because this situation has never come up in my practice or in the case law in Ontario, as far as I can determine.

Just think if you were a Green Bay Packers’ fan:   Apparently virtually every seat in their stadium is held by a season ticket owner and there is a waiting list with over 62,000 names of people wanting to have the right to purchase season tickets.  I imagine that one would pretty much have to wait for an existing season ticket holder to die before your name would move up the list.  Would some “wise” judge in Green Bay, Wisconsin  order divorcing spouses to “sell” their season tickets in order to determine their value for property division purposes. Or maybe that “wise” judge would order the separating spouses to share the season tickets and thus end up sitting next to each other for 3 hours every other weekend during the season.

With Super Bowl Sunday just around the corner and the Packers having a good chance at winning the championship, I imagine that Packers’ season tickets prices and the right to purchases season tickets in future years could go through the roof.   So let’s hope that there aren’t too many divorcing couples in Green Bay with the right to purchase season tickets next year, or, if there are, that they have contemplated how to divide up the tickets and reflected their arrangements in a Marriage Contract created at the time they bought their tickets.

Leafs, Raptors, Blue Jays and other sports spouses – take heart!

Ontario is now committed to reforming the family court system in Ontario. To make that happen the government intends to change the attitude of all participants. Those of us who deal with family breakdowns have long understood that the adversarial system is really not the best system to deal with family breakdown. That system often causes more harm by giving the conflict legitimacy and creating the sense that there are winners and losers when in fact there are no winners when the family unit ends.

Last year, the Attorney General for Ontario, Chris Bentley, announced a new process for resolving family law disputes. The process would be based on four ‘pillars’:

 1.    Providing early information for separating spouses and children;

 2.    Assessing parties and directing them to appropriate and proportional services using a triage approach;

 3.    Facilitating greater access to legal information, advice and alternative dispute resolution processes; and

 4.    Developing a streamlined and focused family court process.

Recently, the Attorney General announced another step toward attaining that goal. In relation to step 1, he announced that he would make province wide the Mandatory Information Program (MIP) that has been used with such success in Toronto. Before any separated couple can go to court, each party will have to attend an MIP. The MIP will focus on the systems available to resolve family law disputes. It will educate the litigating parties about the damage that they can do to each other by approaching their dispute with a ‘win lose’ mindset. The MIP is starting in April 2011 and will expand over the summer to all Ontario courts so that by the end of 2011, nobody will be able to go to family court until they have attended an MIP. 

There is no doubt that when a marriage breaks down, one or both parties have very strong emotions – intense hurt, intense anger, which can translate quickly into a strong desire for revenge. No doubt fear is a strong influence on these emotions. How can I manage financially? What did I do to cause this? How could I be so wrong about my spouse? What will happen to our children? These are but a few of the intense questions that influence the actions of separated partners, partners who fully intended to live out their marriage vows and don’t understand fully where things went wrong.

People don’t know how to function when their world begins to fall apart around them. This is completely understandable. Often they believe that the only hope is to hire a strong ‘attack dog’ type lawyer to protect them and get the most from their partner. Some lawyers actually believe they do their clients a great service by being that ‘attack dog’. However, the good family lawyer will try his or her best to fully inform their client about the systems available including mediation, collaborative law, arbitration, and court. The good lawyer will tell their client how much each of these systems is likely to cost. More importantly, they will tell their client what it is like to go through these various systems of dispute resolution. When the client is fully informed, they often understand that the last place they want to be is in court.

It is crucial for people going through separation to understand what the various dispute resolution services are able to do for them to assist them in moving on to a place where they can carry on, after divorce. Often that service is not court based.

Sadly, not all lawyers fully inform their clients at the outset of the case. Sometimes, as well, the client, who often is in a complete state of emotional shock, is not able to hear what the good lawyer is telling them about the benefits of mediation and arbitration. All they can think of is that they need a Judge to tell the spouse who has hurt them so badly that he or she is a very bad person and should be punished. They don’t, therefore, give proper informed instruction to their lawyer.

The MIP should be designed to assist the people who have been seriously harmed by their separation. It should alert them to their need for counselling and professional assistance from mental health professionals. It should explain the different ways of approaching the resolution of the parenting and financial issues that arise when the family breaks down. It should focus on the need to maintain a relationship between parents for the sake of their children who are most affected by their separation. It should tell them that a long adversarial court battle is the last thing that either of them need – that the costs are too great and can be ruinous, not only financially, but emotionally and psychologically to both parties and their children.  It should give them education about the best method of resolving their particular dispute.

So, thanks to this Government initiative,  the movement for change is finally on – a movement that was spawned by many professionals who have dedicated themselves for so many years to assisting families going through the most common tragedy of our modern lives – separation and divorce. Professionals in this area have known for many many years that the adversarial system can cause more harm and that it really should be the rare case where separated spouses need a third party – a Judge to decide their fate when their marriage or partnership ends.

For those who want to read about the work these professionals have done, download this PDF.

You’re out for a night on the town while on a well deserved trip to Las Vegas, consuming alcoholic beverage after beverage (as has been known to happen in Sin City). You wake up the next morning only to find that you are sharing a bed with a complete stranger that you met just the night before. Then, to your horror, you realize you are both wearing brand new rings on that all too meaningful fourth finger. I’m sure this scene is familiar to you, although perhaps not personally, as it forms the plot of numerous Hollywood movies.

You panic – what are the implications of your recent nuptials? Can it actually be undone, or annulled, as they often say in the movies? The short answer is yes, if acted upon quickly, a decree of nullity may be obtained.

There are numerous requirements in Canada to create or enter into a ‘valid marriage’. One of those requirements is that the parties entering into the marriage possess the mental capacity to do so. Where mental capacity is absent, for example, because one party is intoxicated and is therefore deprived of reason or freewill, it is possible to have the marriage declared void by way of a decree of nullity.   

In the case of intoxication, a decree of nullity declares that there never was a marriage. That said, a marriage which is otherwise void by reason of intoxication is capable of rectification (becoming valid) if the newly married couple continues to live together as a couple.

So when the party’s over and you’ve done something that could have severe legal implications, be timely in consulting a lawyer

This time of year we should all be turning our minds to getting our paperwork together to file our  income tax return.  One of the questions we get this time of year is whether our clients can claim their legal expenses as a deduction on their income tax return.

You can claim legal fees incurred to collect late support (child or spousal) payments, establish the amount of support, seek an increase in support payments or to defend against the reduction of support payments.   But you cannot claim those fees you incur where you are establishing a right where none existed.

It is important to distinguish between ‘collect’, ‘establish” and ‘create.’ The friendly words are “collect” and “establish”. ‘Create’ isn’t, because legal fees incurred to create a right to support are not deductible.   To put it as simply as possible you can deduct those fees incurred to “collect” ; that is when you incur fees when there is an amount owed to you. i.e. you can deduct legal fees incurred to collect late support (child or spousal) payments. You can also deduct those fees incurred to “establish” the amount of support based on your legal right to child or spousal support as the case may be.  But if your argument lies on whether you actually have a right to support at all (there is a questions as to whether you are a spouse or child) those legal fees incurred in asserting that claim may not be deductible.

Those deductible legal fees may also include the fees paid to experts such as accountants who are retained by your lawyer to determine a support payor’s income for the purpose of your support claim.

For the support payor or the one defending a claim for support, however, there is no such tax relief.  Legal fees incurred by the payor-spouse in respect to child or spousal support are not deductible under any circumstances, regardless of whether the expenses are incurred to establish, negotiate, or contest the amount of support payment.

In order for an expense to be deductible, it must relate to an income source. Since the payor-spouse is the payer, his or her legal fees are not expenses incurred to earn an income.

Before you claim a deduction, ask your lawyer for a receipt for tax purposes and consult with your accountant.  At our firm we provide a letter to attach to your tax return detailing what percentage of your account was incurred in seeking support; along with a billing history.  You might want to get that ball rolling now, because if you’re anything like me tax time always seems to sneak up on you.

For more information go to the Revenue Canada web site at www.cra-arc.gc.ca

Section 5 – Debts & Liabilities – It is your Advantage to List All Debts & Liabilities

In my previous blog I wrote about Section 4 (c) of the Financial Statement and noted to the readers to stay tuned for Section 5. 

Again, Section 5 offers different columns.  The first column is the “date of marriage”, the second column is the “valuation date”.  The valuation date is also known as the “separation date” and the third and final column is the “current value”. 

All debts and liabilities must be listed on the financial statement if your name is associated with it  Again if you have a joint debt with your spouse or a third party, then you only enter half of the debt in the relevant columns on the statement.  It is to your advantage to list all debts and liabilities as this will decrease your net family property.  I will be writing about net family property in one of my later blogs.  Remember it is up to you to prove your debts and liabilities.  Any debt claimed with no back up documentation is more than likely going to be a debt which will not be included in your net family property.  If you have acquired debt after your separation date, this debt should be noted in the “current value” column of the debt section of the statement.  When making a claim for spousal and/or child support, it is very important to show the Judge what your current debt is as well.  If you are claiming that you can’t make ends meet on what your spouse is currently providing, good evidence that backs up your claim is that you  are currently going deeper into debt to support yourself and the children and therefore require additional funds from your spouse.

Section 6 – Property, Debts and Other Liabilities on Date of Marriage

This section will automatically be filled in by the form.  You will have entered your date of marriage property under the “property” section already as well as your date of marriage assets and debts etc.  Each of these sections have a “date of marriage” column.  The form compiles all these different sections and enters the values into Section 6 of the financial statement.

Section 7 – Excluded Property

Excluded property is exactly that, property that by law is not included in your net family property.  This type of property includes, gifts or inheritances from a third party, income from property expressly excluded by donor/testator, personal injuries awards for damages, life insurance proceeds, traced property and excluded property by spousal agreement.  Again, it is up to you to prove that this property is excluded and why.  For example, if you inherit a sum of money and keep that money in an investment or bank account in your name alone, you prove that it was inherited and then prove that the money was kept in your name alone.  This is easily done by providing the investment statement showing how and when the account was opened i.e. Where the funds were transferred from and of course that your name alone is on the statement.  However, if you took that inherited money and used it to upgrade the matrimonial home, it is no longer excluded and your spouse will share in the value of the upgrade to the matrimonial home.

Section 8 – Disposed of Property

Disposed of property is property that has been disposed of during the two years immediately preceding the making of the financial statement or during the marriage, whichever period is shorter.  

It is the start of the New Year and I am still basking in the holiday glow. The glow emanates from good will and holiday cheer, from spending time with loved ones and hearing from old friends, from a little time off work, indulging in good food and drinks, and certainly from all the new gifts and goodies.

Each holiday season most of us will receive gifts from our families, friends, neighbors and perhaps – ourselves. Some gifts will be useful, others beautiful, some very sentimental. These gifts will be used or consumed, displayed or wrapped up, and well, added to our various accumulating piles of ‘stuff’.     

By ‘stuff’ I mean all those items big and small that fill our homes and offices. Lawyers call ‘stuff’ chattels or personal property. Family law lawyers refer to our ‘stuff’ as the “contents of the matrimonial or family home”.

Many of us spend considerable time and expense building up our piles of stuff. When spouses separate these piles will need to be sorted, divided, potentially valued and possibly sold.

In Ontario when married spouses separate technically each spouse is entitled to one half of the value of all accrued property, and not one half of the property itself. This means that the family stuff is to be listed on a balance sheet in either your column, or your spouse’s column, or jointly. The value of your stuff is totaled together with the remainder of your other assets. You debts and liabilities are deducted from this total, with certain items excluded (e.g. traceable inheritances). The resulting sum is a spouse’s “net family property”. In theory, the value of all the family assets from the Fabergé egg to the 15 year-old crockpot, will be factored in when determining net family properties.

There are  a few different ways to arrive at the value of your stuff. You and your spouse may agree to a value (e.g. you both agree the couch is worth $150). Or if you and your spouse are unable to agree to the value of certain items you can agree to mutually retain  an individual to value that item. Or if you cannot mutually agree to a valuator you may each choose your own valuator to have the item valued. If the valuators arrive at different values you may be required to seek a decision from a judge or arbitrator as to the value of the item, or if the item is to be sold.

In Ontario market value is used when valuing personal items. Market value is not how much you purchased the item for, nor is how much it will cost you to replace the item, and it is not the value to you personally. Market value means the price a willing purchaser will pay to a willing vendor for an asset. As the market for used personal property is limited family law lawyers often explain to clients that except with reference to antiques or art many of the contents of the typical middle class home will be valued at garage sale prices.

Not surprisingly, after considering the expense of a valuator or the legal costs required to have a value determined, clients often choose not to take the technical route with regard to all the family property.

As a family law lawyer it is my job to present the options and to advise clients with regard to valuing or dividing family property. Whether a client decides to value certain items, or to negotiate a division, will depend on the monetary or sentimental value of the object to him or her. If a client wishes to divide their assets rather than listing them as part of their net family property, they should make a detailed list as soon as possible of all the items in the home. The list should be broken down into 2 categories: i.) the stuff they want, and  ii.) the stuff they do not want. The ‘stuff they want’ list should then be reviewed, with the client highlighting the items they simply cannot live without. Clients should provide their lawyer with all of their lists, the wants, don’t wants, and can’t live withouts. This will help the lawyer strategize in accordance with the client’s instructions.

Below are some further tips to help clients develop their lists:

a.)  Try to divide your items such that each spouse’s total items have an approximately equal value,

b.)  The children’s personal items remain with the children to reduce the disruption and loss in their lives as much as possible,

c.)   If you are negotiating an item using lawyers, balance the replacement costs for the item against the amount of legal fees likely to be accumulated negotiating for that item, and

d.)  Focus on your needs, don’t use the exercise to ‘get back at’ your spouse: you will only waste time and emotional energy.

It’s the start of a New Year.  Once again I have the usual resolutions – I will lose weight (hopefully – the last daughter is getting married in August and it would be nice to finally accomplish this), I will exercise more; I will eat healthy, I will be a better person.

All great goals! The trick they say is to break it down into little chunks.  It is not that I will lose 25 or 30 pounds it is that I will lose 5 pounds.  It is not that I will eat healthy.  It is that I will eat one more vegetable or fruit each day.  It is not that I will be a better person.  It is that I will make an effort to listen to what others are saying and respond to their issues and concerns before thinking of mine.

Being separated or divorced can leave you feeling somewhat unsure of how to move forward in the New Year. May I suggest that you make a list  – something for each month of the year that you hope to accomplish i.e.

January           Lose those 5 pounds from Christmas

February          Play with the children outside on a regular basis

March              Wear something green on March 17th

April                Plant some indoor flowers or plan your garden

May                Read one book from beginning to end

June               Bring out those summer clothes (revisit January goal if necessary)

July                Bask in the sun

August            Swim in a lake like you did as a child

September      Back to school – maybe a class for you

October          Enjoy Thanksgiving and give thanks for the last year and the changes you have made

November       Sort through the winter clothes

December       Volunteer at a local charity

See the list doesn’t have to be cumbersome – small steps towards the next stage of life.

Enjoy yourself and welcome in 2011 with all the changes it might bring.  As the year progresses, you can always change your goals to suit your new lifestyle – a lifestyle that reflects the growing confidence you have in the person that you are.

“He is a lying, cheating, blankity blank and I can prove it!”  I sometimes hear this type of statement (blanks usually filled in) with the client sitting across from me and looking at me expectantly … almost as if waiting for me to put my feet up on my desk and declare, “Well, that’s it then: case closed!!”.  While it would be strangely satisfying to be able to resolve a matter with that degree of simplicity, in reality, it just doesn’t work that way.

Before I say more, lest I become labeled as a sexist who likes making generalizations about the promiscuity of men everywhere, I should point out that the lying, cheating, blankity blank could just as easily be a “she” as opposed to a “he” .  There must be statistics on that somewhere but I’ll leave it to those who are interested to ferret that data out for themselves.

Adultery is one of the three grounds for getting a divorce in Canada; along with, cruelty and living separate and apart from one another for at least one year.  I think it’s pretty safe to say, however, that seeking a divorce on the grounds of either adultery or cruelty is the exception to the norm.  Most divorces are sought on the grounds of separation because you don’t have to prove anything and you can just wait it out for a year before filing the required paperwork.  The only plus from proceeding on the basis of your spouse’s adultery is that, if you can prove it, you may be able to get a divorce order more quickly.  The catch is that you actually have to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that your spouse has had an intimate sexual relationship with somebody outside of the marriage.  You also have to satisfy the court that there has been no collusion between you and your spouse regarding the infidelity: you and your spouse cannot just agree to fabricate evidence of adultery in order to get a quick divorce.   In most cases, it is simply easier to wait for a year and obtain your divorce based on the passage of time.

With respect to the issue of child support, a support payor will be required to pay support in accordance with his or her income and the Child Support Guidelines.  Whether that person has cheated on his spouse or not is irrelevant to the amount of child support he or she will be required to pay.

With respect to making an order for spousal support, according to both our federal and provincial legislation, the court is not supposed to take into consideration any misconduct of the spouse in relation to the marriage.   The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in Leskun v. Leskun that “the attempt to get to the bottom of all the rights and wrongs that contributed to the break-up is likely impossible and in any event irrelevant to the task of sorting out the financial consequences”.  By the same token, you are not going to acquire a more significant property settlement based on your spouse’s infidelity.  The value of the property acquired during the marriage will, except in the rarest of circumstances, be equalized by the court in the event of a breakdown of the marriage.

Even when it comes to the issue of custody of or access to a child, the legislation specifically states that a person’s past conduct shall be considered only when the conduct has been violent or abusive or when the court is satisfied that the conduct is relevant to the person’s ability to act as a parent.  In the eyes of the court, committing adultery does not, in and of itself, prevent an individual from parenting a child.

The bottom line is that, while learning that your spouse has been unfaithful will almost inevitably cause a great deal of emotional trauma and while the thought of “making him or her pay” may seem very appealing,  the courts are not going to be particularly interested in the adultery unless it is somehow relevant to an issue at hand.  In most cases, adultery simply is not relevant.

The RESP can be invested in government and corporate bonds, GICS and stocks and in mutual funds.

The RESP contributions are supplemented by the Canada Savings Education Grant, which is a federal program that deposits up to $500.00 per year directly into the RESP.

Although the RESP contributions are not tax deductible the tax payable on the RESP is minimized because when the accumulated income and Canada Savings Education Grants are withdrawn from the RESP to pay for education expenses, it is the student who pays the taxes, not the RESP contributor.

All of the money withdrawn from the RESP is taxed in the student’s hands as ordinary income and, as such, attracts little or no tax because of the student’s basic personal exemptions and tuition/education tax credits.

Although there is no minimum annual contribution requirement, the lifetime contribution limit per beneficiary of the RESP is $50,000.00. A child can be a beneficiary of more than one RESP, but that child is still limited to a maximum contribution limit of $50,000.00.

The Canadian Education Savings Grant pays a grant of 20% of the first $2,500.00 of annual contributions directly into the RESP. There is a lifetime limit of $7,200.00 of Canadian Education Savings Grant money that a student may receive through an RESP.

In the event that a student does not pursue post secondary education, the contributions made to the RESP are returned to the payor, with no tax consequences and the Canadian Education Savings Grants are returned to the federal government.

The payments from an RESP toward post secondary education is called an education assistance payment ( EAP). The EAP comprises the RESP contributions, the Canadian Education Savings Grants and the income that those funds have generated. The institution to which EAPs are paid must qualify as an education program. Universities, Community Colleges, Jr. Colleges or specialized training schools qualify as education programs.

The payment of an EAP requires that the RESP administrator be provided with written instructions requesting that the EAP be made to the student, along with proof of the student’s enrolment at a qualifying educational institution.

An RESP matures or terminates on the earlier of all of the funds having been withdrawn or at the end of the 35th year from the date the RESP was commenced.

There are two types of RESPS,  a single beneficiary plan where there is only one potential student and a family plan, where there is more than one potential student within a family.

In a family RESP the RESP EAP does not need to be paid out in proportionate shares between the potential students. If one child does not elect to attend post secondary education, the other potential student or students may use the EAP for their education.

RESP Separation Issues

Because child support obligations are to meet current expenditures relating to children, the Courts have, in general, refused to impose an obligation on the payor spouse to contribute towards an RESP.

The Courts have, however, held that the total contributions made to an RESP during the marriage, regardless of which parent made the contributions and in what amount, will be made available for post secondary expenses.

Any shortfall in the payment of post secondary expenditures will be paid by the parents proportionate to their income.

RESP contributions made by a parent after separation are generally credited to the parent who made them.

For several years, the Ontario Superior Court, Family Division in our County and through the province have faced administrative challenges in dealing with ever increasing numbers of files.  The challenge has been further exacerbated by an increasing incidents of self represented parties who are, understandably, not familiar with the court procedural rules and necessary pleadings and required filings.

Part of the recent government initiatives in addressing this issue has been the institution in the County of the appointment of dispute resolution officers ( “ DROs”).

DROs are, in essence, court sanctioned lay mediators who work within the court process at an early procedural phase in an attempt to assist litigating parties to resolve their legal issues.

A number of experienced family law practitioners have recently been appointed as DROs for the City of Barrie. Commencing January 5th, 2011, all parties involved in Motions to Change (i.e.: varying child/spousal support/custody/access) must have an initial appearance in front of a DRO, whether the parties are represented by lawyers or not.

The DRO conferences are to be held every Wednesday morning and afternoon and Friday morning and afternoon in a DRO conference room at the Barrie Courthouse. The DRO is, at that time, to provide an early, neutral valuation of the case. The DRO can assist the parties in settling the case, narrowing the outstanding issues or ensuring that the parties, moving forward, complete any outstanding pleadings and supporting documentation relating to the Motion to Change.

In the event that the parties are able to reach a settlement ,or partial settlement, at the DRO conference, the parties are to prepare Minutes of Settlement or partial Minutes of Settlement and a duty family Judge will be present to sign an Order that day.

The DROs are not authorized to make Orders, nor are they to be involved in the preparation of Minutes of Settlement.

It is hoped that the DRO conference will affect a timely settlement of Motions to Change.

In the event that the Motion to Change does not settle at the DRO conference, the DRO will complete a screening sheet which will set out the DRO’s recommendations on the file in a neutral matter. A copy of the screening sheet will be provided to the parties and a copy will be placed in the endorsement record for reference by Judges on the file.

There is no cost to the parties for a DRO conference. The conference is a service provided by the Family Law Bar.

Doug Manning and Barrie Hayes of Barriston LLP have been appointed DROs. Tom Dart of Barriston is the DRO Co-ordinator.