The family law support team is committed to providing our customers with a complete understanding of the family laws that may influence your case. At our monthly seminar our expert lawyers will discuss family laws in a practical fashion - discussing the most common laws and how they will most likely impact your specific case. There are also links on this page and under divorce information for self litigants to research the family and divorce laws in Canada.

The Divorce Act
Family Law Act
Family Law Rules
Family Court Forms
Family Responsibility and Support Arrears Enforcement Act
Ontario Court Addresses
Children's Law Reform Act
Child and Family Services Act

Divorce Law - Dividing Property

The Family Law Act of Ontario provides for a division of "Net Family Property" upon separation. Net family property is essentially a calculation of what each party accumulated during the marriage. The easiest way to calculate this is by using the court form Financial Statement - Form 13.1. At the end of this process the party with the greater Net Family Property pays the other one half of the difference.

There are some specific rules that you need to be careful about when filling out the property portion of the Financial Statement. These include knowing how to deal with items such as the matrimonial home, gifts and inheritances and property owned before you got married.

The net value of property that you brought into the marriage gets deducted from the net value of the property you have at the end of the marriage. Gifts and inheritances are "excluded" from the calculation unless the money went into the matrimonial home.