subject: New family laws to advice action calm violence [print this page] Family Laws is a unique bilingual website, written in both English and Hebrew, by practising lawyers. A comprehensive and user-friendly guide to family law, it contains thousands of items based on real cases and questions we are frequently asked during our work as lawyers dealing exclusively in this field. It also contains a selection of legal columns we have written for newspapers, and judgments in cases we have handled.
Founded in 1989, our multilingual practice works exclusively in family law and specializes in cases with an international dimension. Our lawyers speak Hebrew , English and French at mother tongue level. We believe that good communication between lawyer /attorney and client is essential to effective representation in international family law disputes. A significant proportion of our clients are non-Israeli and live overseas.
We hope you find our website useful and easy to use. Please note, however, that the information provided on it is not a substitute for personal legal counselling which is available upon payment.
FAMILY LAWS OVERHAUL HIGHLIGHTS
Other important measures in B.C.'s proposed changes to its family laws include:
- Repealing a controversial law that allows parents to sue their adult children for support.
- Creating "parenting co-ordinators" with the authority to resolve disputes within existing parenting agreements -- without tying up court resources.
- Forcing a mandatory 60-day notice when a guardian wants to relocate a child so parents can resolve the move co-operatively, and a judge can consider whether it is in the child's best interests.
- Making "children's best interests the only consideration in parenting disputes" and allowing for the consideration of a child's view.
- Changing certain legal language to more neutral terms, such as replacing "custody" with "guardianship," and "access" with "parenting time."
- New penalties against parents who fail to show up for their allotted time with a child, or who withhold access from another parent. Sanctions range from counselling to the removal of the child to up to 30 days in jail.
- Expanding the law on dividing property among common-law couples.
- Excluding certain types of property from being split at the end of a relationship, including pre- and post-relationship property, gifts and inheritances.
- Regularly reviewing spousal-support agreements.
- Defining domestic violence and making it a consideration in determining a child's best interest. Also, ensuring family court judges know of any current criminal or civil proceedings against the parties involved.
- Replacing family law restraining orders with "protection orders" enforceable under the Criminal Code.
- Giving judges new "conduct orders" to deal with so-called "high-conflict families" that are so acrimonious and hostile that they tie up the system and perpetuate conflict. The court may also appoint a lawyer for a child to help refocus the disagreement on the best interests of the child.
