Here’s what you need to consider in order to make informed decisions:
✅ Decision-Making Responsibility – under the Divorce Act Canada, if you had custody of a child under a custody order prior to March 1, 2021, you now have decision making responsibility – unless the court says otherwise. Familiarize yourself with the legal nuances and categories of parental decision making. Understanding the options and categories of parental decision making ensures that choices align with your family’s best interests.
✅ Spousal Support: understand the complexities of financial support post-divorce. Whether you’re entitled to spousal support or responsible for providing it, clarity on obligations is crucial for achieving equitable outcomes and financial stability.
✅ Parenting time: explore parenting time schedules, parenting plans and how they impact your children. Parenting plans will usually have to change as the children grow up. You will need to make changes as the children’s needs change. Parenting plans will vary depending on the level of conflict that exists between parents. Understanding parenting plans and parenting time empowers you to create a healthy co-parenting plan and nurture meaningful connections with your children.
Equally important is the consideration of amicable resolutions through out-of- court options, such as mediation or collaborative law, fostering cooperation and minimizing conflict for the well-being of all involved.
If you or someone you know is going through divorce, please reach out.
Beryl McNeill is a Calgary divorce lawyer who strongly believes mutual respect and understanding go a long way toward resolving family law matters. As a Registered Collaborative Law practitioner in Calgary, she has dedicated her firm to amicable, cooperative negotiation as a means for settling divorces. Furthermore, throughout her law career, Beryl has seen the costs of adversarial negotiations, both financial and emotional. In emphasizing the collaborative approach, Beryl offers her clients a more efficient model that preserves personal and monetary assets alike.
More and more individuals are attracted to resolving their family law matters in a civil, respectful way. Therefore, they come to Beryl from many walks of life—as professionals in the oil and gas industry and their spouses, business owners, and working spouses with children. Clients say that even after a single consultation with Beryl they feel less stressed and more clear about the way forward.
Beryl understands the often fearful, emotional early stages of divorce. Incorporating skills developed from her training as a life coach, Beryl helps clients move beyond their stress response to more logical, creative thinking. Once there, she works with clients to discover what’s truly important to them in attaining divorce. Furthermore, she encourages clients to picture what a successful settlement would look like a year or more down the road as a means of focusing on their goals. By educating and empowering clients, Beryl seeks to transform the way they resolve family disputes—in a more constructive, intelligent and amicable way than would be possible otherwise.
Finally, Beryl is very active with the Family Bar and the Collaborative Law Community. Her involvement provides her clients with the assurance that she has her finger on the pulse of Family Law in Alberta, offering them a distinct advantage in their quest for equity and civility.