See thread: http://www.ottawadivorce.com/forum/f...s-again-19646/
Jackson v Mayerle, 2016 ONSC 1556 (CanLII)
Date: 2016-03-03
Docket: F67/13
Citation: Jackson v Mayerle, 2016 ONSC 1556 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/gnlnj>
The costs order is in... and it is excellent. So excellent I created a new thread. Everyone going into litigation needs to consider what the Honourable Mr. Justice Pazaratz has to say:
If anyone ever wanted to see the costs in detail this is a great one. (See para. 84 onward!)
Concluding...
Good Luck!
Tayken
Jackson v Mayerle, 2016 ONSC 1556 (CanLII)
Date: 2016-03-03
Docket: F67/13
Citation: Jackson v Mayerle, 2016 ONSC 1556 (CanLII), <http://canlii.ca/t/gnlnj>
The costs order is in... and it is excellent. So excellent I created a new thread. Everyone going into litigation needs to consider what the Honourable Mr. Justice Pazaratz has to say:
INTRODUCTION
1. That was August 8, 2012. An e-mail by a father wanting to see more of his young daughter, written more than a year after separation. Months before this court case started.
2. Fast forward three and a half years.
3. That was February 10, 2016. A concluding statement in the mother’s written costs submissions following a 36 day trial.
4. The father wound up spending $300,000.00 on lawyers. But he won sole custody. So now he wants a quarter of a million dollars in costs.
5. The mother says he’s asking for too much and she can’t afford it anyway, because she spent more than $200,000.00 on her own legal fees.
6. There are many factors to be considered in deciding costs. I will review them below.
7. But pause for a moment to consider the overwhelming tragedy of this case.
8. These are nice, average people. Of modest means (now considerably more modest). They drive old cars and probably pinch pennies shopping at Costco.
9. And yet somehow, between them, they spent more than half a million dollars on lawyers “to have a judge tell us something we could arrange ourselves.”
10. No matter what costs order I make, the financial ruin cannot be undone. They’ll never recover. Their eight year old daughter’s future has been squandered.
11. How did this happen? How does this keep happening?
12. What will it take to convince angry parents that nasty and aggressive litigation never turns out well?
“We are both reasonable people and I really think we can work this out without spending 40 to 50 thousand dollars a piece in lawyer fees only to have a judge tell us something we could arrange ourselves. Please I’m begging you to be reasonable.”
1. That was August 8, 2012. An e-mail by a father wanting to see more of his young daughter, written more than a year after separation. Months before this court case started.
2. Fast forward three and a half years.
“This trial has been financially disastrous for both parties.”
3. That was February 10, 2016. A concluding statement in the mother’s written costs submissions following a 36 day trial.
4. The father wound up spending $300,000.00 on lawyers. But he won sole custody. So now he wants a quarter of a million dollars in costs.
5. The mother says he’s asking for too much and she can’t afford it anyway, because she spent more than $200,000.00 on her own legal fees.
6. There are many factors to be considered in deciding costs. I will review them below.
7. But pause for a moment to consider the overwhelming tragedy of this case.
8. These are nice, average people. Of modest means (now considerably more modest). They drive old cars and probably pinch pennies shopping at Costco.
9. And yet somehow, between them, they spent more than half a million dollars on lawyers “to have a judge tell us something we could arrange ourselves.”
10. No matter what costs order I make, the financial ruin cannot be undone. They’ll never recover. Their eight year old daughter’s future has been squandered.
11. How did this happen? How does this keep happening?
12. What will it take to convince angry parents that nasty and aggressive litigation never turns out well?
113. All of this could have been avoided.
114. All of this should have been avoided.
115. Courts have an obligation to deliver that message, so parents will stop pretending that hard-ball custody litigation is “for the sake of the child.”
114. All of this should have been avoided.
115. Courts have an obligation to deliver that message, so parents will stop pretending that hard-ball custody litigation is “for the sake of the child.”
116. The Respondent shall pay to the Applicant costs fixed in the sum of $192,000.00 inclusive of all disbursements, reimbursements and HST. This includes $2,000.00 in relation to the preparation of comprehensive costs submissions (and reply submissions).
Tayken
Comment