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  • #16
    I would hold off then and track all your payments and all your costs for school. Take the cs overpayment off the living expenses you owe or ask the court to reduce that. Shes double dipping.

    This is the bigger problem with family law---the failure to think ahead in money issues and the delays in the court. Thats where the real reform should happen. There should be a clause in agreements that show specific termination factors that maintenance agencies have to adhere to and court dates for cs issues shouldnt be a myriad of conferences, months of delays etc. there almost needs to be a separate judiciary group that reviews cs cases to get updates done immediately so things like this dont happen. (My partner is in a similar boat with cs overpayment while kid is at school and his ex has no intention of moving on fixing it, for him though his cs has increased with employment so if she wants the extra she will have to get moving).

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    • #17
      It seems likely that the bar associations would come up with excuses for opposing the streamlining of changes to CS, because it would reduce billings for lawyers.

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      • #18
        Originally posted by somethingelse View Post
        It seems likely that the bar associations would come up with excuses for opposing the streamlining of changes to CS, because it would reduce billings for lawyers.
        And that is exactly the root cause of the issue. Essentially Lawyer income trumps "best interests of the children". This is an incredibly sad state of affairs... and makes for a very demanding uphill climb for justice.

        So what is the best route to start this petition? A single letter to your local MP would likely get nowhere... thoughts? ideas?

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        • #19
          I highly doubt any reform will include " capping" lawyers charges. If you push compulsory mediation you will create a backlog of cases waiting for mediation and the costs of,these services will likely be equal to a lawyer.

          The root of the FL problems lie in education of parental dynamics in society. Moving away from the perceived " Norm". For example now We have so many different family dynamics not just Man and Women and child, but Man and Man with child, Women and Women with child. What happens to the perceived Women bias in these situations?

          What we need to do is vastly improve the beuarcratic nightmare of civil service. FRO. Should be online. Ridiculous that FRO is not linked with CRA. Ridiculous that FRO does not use online information and that you cannot email your client representative. Also why are they still using Fax to receive and send information. When they receive the faxes they scan them into their system. The errors of lost information occur at this point. We have just " faxed" 3 ordes and arrears statements. On calling FRO our client advisor told us that she only had 2 orders and 1 page of the arrears statement. We have a lawyers confirmation of the numbers of pages faxed, PLUS a reply ( fax of course) from FRO confirming the documents were received and asking specific questions of each of the 3 orders received! Our Client advisor comment was " oh, some pages are missing, perhaps not scanned".

          If FRO worked efficiently then the system would be used and effective.

          My rant for,the day!

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          • #20
            Alberta maintenance enforcement has been on line for many years.

            Problem in Alberta though is that there is no file ownership. So when you are dealing with them you get a different individual every time. This can be problematic as, with many things in life, you are told one thing by one person and another thing by another person. The one good thing is that emailing or texting MEP results in a hard copy to which you can refer to.

            Demand your provincial Liberal government get with the times with FRO online.

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            • #21
              I give FRO some blame but for the most part the problem lies with unreasonable people. Dont like that cs has run out? File with FRO so ex has to waste time and money resolving it. Dont want ex to take kids away? Say no so they have to get an emergency motion. Dont want ex to have custody/access? Fight tooth and nail to stop it.

              Theres so many places that need fixing there would be difficulty figuring out where to start. Legal aid needs an overhaul, penalties for withholding access/alienation need to be implemented, support enforcement needs better checks...the list is endless.

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              • #22
                So lets take the unreasonable people out of the equation. CS is the right of the child. So when A child reaches 17 the CS should be paid to the child once that child can prive they are in fulltime school. If they live at home they can pay board to which parent they stay with. If there are section 7 expenses such as senior sports or university then the young adult, who is making all other decisions affecting their lives, can fill in the form and have the section 7 expenses paid intomtheir account.

                These young people are 17/18 and are making their own life decisions, so its a stupid system that leaves the parents to haggle over who pays what.

                CRA can look at all parties income, make the calculation and deposit the money into the necessary parties account. The student just needs to complete the form. Much like applying for gst.

                Here lies the problem...... Family law seems to operate on a provincial basis not a federal basis. And we all know one cannot talk with the other!

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                • #23
                  Except that once they are age of majority, CS will typically apply for University only... which is a Section 7 expense... which in itself has no end of twists and turns for the "unreasonable" parent to exploit. Throw in RESPs, OSAP Grants, variable annual living expenses, kids moving (or not moving) to one parents house for 4 months between semesters... Interesting idea, but I would not want to let the CRA anywhere near that can of worms.

                  I agree with Rockscan.. one CANNOT take "unreasonable" people out of the equation. Through the last couple of years, I've come to believe the vast majority of High Conflict cases are driven by a single unreasonable person.... which is probably why the vast majority of us are griping on this forum..

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                  • #24
                    Thats where unreasonable parents come in. My partner offered to pay directly to kid or deal directly with kid but kid said no thats not what mom wants.

                    Im telling you, 90% of the cases that go to court are because one party cant play fair or act reasonably. There should be an adjudicator who reviews every filing and anything that isn't straightforward (ie can be rubber stamped) it goes to secondary review where there is another judge who tells the parties to pull their heads out of their asses and reach an agreement. Failing that, they go to court and pay fees.

                    Filing a motion to change cs should be simple and there actually is an "agreed to" form but who is going to agree if it takes money away from either party? No one. So then you have to go through months of process like settlement conferences etc. and finally a decision when youve wasted $$$ and time!

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                    • #25
                      All,

                      There is plenty wrong.... but the worst by far are these a**hole lawyers that instigate more conflict and bill by the second.

                      These are predators that exploit us when we were at our weakest.

                      Could you imagine if our health care system worked the way Family Laywer's did. "Lets make the patient sicker (they trust me) so I can charge them more $$$ !!!"

                      Makes me want to vomit.

                      Furthermore the LSUC is a joke. Its letting the fox guard the hen house.

                      Lets do something. !!! Anything !!!

                      I have a couple of Guy Fawks masks I can lend out.
                      Last edited by plainNamedDad44; 10-26-2015, 09:18 PM.

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                      • #26
                        How about a statute that requires new lawyers to work in family law (a residency, intership if you will) for 3 years and only allows a max bill rate of 40 dollars an hour. Like the health system, the resident could confer with her/his superior when needed. The Senior would be obligated to oversee.

                        It works in health care.

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                        • #27
                          I hear you PND.... it's a disgusting business centered around money and disguised with words such as "best interests of the child".

                          I feel like there is at least some progress being made. There has been some promising case law where judges have had enough and are dropping the hammer on the sh*% disturbers. Unfortunately, way to many of us feel the wrath of the system, some even resorting to suicide.

                          I would love to see some reform in family law ... but we're minnow's in an ocean here on odf. I'm with you though PND, I know the exact feeling you felt when you started this thread.

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                          • #28
                            I'm in full agreement with both of you... I invest so much time, energy and money in my personal battle that I have precious little left for the "big fight" that needs to take place... but it must... how do we start? letters to MP is one thing, but how else can we make this happen? This is a real question...

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                            • #29
                              Originally posted by LovingFather32 View Post
                              I feel like there is at least some progress being made. There has been some promising case law where judges have had enough and are dropping the hammer on the sh*% disturbers. Unfortunately, way to many of us feel the wrath of the system, some even resorting to suicide.
                              Unfortunately, members of this forum are all too familiar with this.

                              http://www.ottawadivorce.com/forum/f...elocity-10367/

                              After Logicalvelocity's passing is when I decided to contribute to this forum significantly.

                              Good Luck!
                              Tayken

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                              • #30
                                Child Custody Industry is a Black Hole.

                                What we need is a system and judges that aren't afraid to make judgements using common sense. Too much weight seems to me to be placed on so-called "expert" testimony. It seems to me that the child protection business, which used to be to protect children who were in terribly abusive situations, has now turned it's bread-and-butter to run-of-the-mill, everyday, high-conflict child custody cases.

                                Judges simply have to get back to the old way of just hearing the cases and making decisions. Perhaps a form of mini-trials have to occur in place of the ridiculous lengthy charade of case-conferences? People aren't inclined to settle their matters when, in their minds, the judge is "free." All this case conferencing has done is set up a layer of bullshit that the judge has to peel back come trial to make a ruling.

                                The process takes much too long.

                                I wonder if charging large fees for case conferences would make a difference? Everyone knows the conferences are a joke. Problem is, case management system is mandatory pretrial. Many people know, right from the start, that the ex is not going to settle no matter how good the offer is. This is the case when freebie legal aid lawyer are involved or when one party has mega-bucks and simply wants to starve the other party out with the hope that they will cave in and agree to anything just to get the matter over and done with.

                                Terrible system.

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