Case Scenarios

The husband and wife were joint owners a successful business which averaged $4,000,000.00 of annual sales in a service industry. The wife advised the husband that their marriage was over, and on the same date gathered the employees of the business without the knowledge of the husband and advised them that they were terminated. The husband contacted Harris + Harris LLP, and within 24 hours thereafter we had obtained a Court Order (injunction) restraining the wife from attending at the business, dealing with any of the employees, dealing with any of the financial issues of the business and soliciting the businesses’ customers.

The lawyers in Harris + Harris LLP’s family law group worked with the husband’s accountants, two independent business valuators, an independent mediator and several lawyers in Harris + Harris LLP’s other practice groups (including civil litigation, tax and corporate law) to achieve a negotiated resolution of the entire action, within fourteen months of the date of commencement, that provided for a resolution of the entirety of the matrimonial affairs of the husband and wife, the husband’s buyout of the wife’s interest in the business, and a framework for the resolution of the corporate income tax issues which arose from the sale of the business and related holding companies.

 

We were contacted by a young lady who advised that her mother had been served with “divorce papers”. We met with the young lady and her mother, and it became apparent that the mother was incapable of providing legal instructions due to an illness for which she was suffering. A defence to the divorce proceeding was prepared, and at the same time our lawyers brought a motion to have a litigation guardian appointed for the mother in order to ensure that her interests were properly protected, and so that we were able to obtain clear and unequivocal instructions.

Our family lawyers worked diligently in order to ensure that the husband provided us with full and complete disclosure of his financial assets (which were substantial). We then used the services of an independent business valuator (and chartered accountant) in order to properly value the husband’s business assets, so as to calculate the equalization of Net Family Property owed to our client.

Through the use of the Toronto Family Law Court’s facilitative case management process, and the tactical timing of motions brought before the Court for relief, we were able within 20 months to obtain a comprehensive resolution whereby our client received a capital equalization payment of $2.3 million dollars, and a monthly spousal support payment of $35,000.00 per month.

 

The husband and wife were parties to a separation agreement under which the wife received spousal support from the husband for a number of years following the divorce. About a year after the payments ended pursuant to the separation agreement, the wife lost her employment. The family law group at Harris + Harris LLP brought a Motion for spousal support and we were successful in placing monthly funds in the wife's hands, by way of interim interim Court Order, pending cross-examinations and until the interim hearing of the issue of spousal support by the Court.

The interim hearing of the wife's Motion was delayed. One such delay resulted from the husband's refusal to provide comprehensive income disclosure. In the absence of sufficient evidence on this issue, the Court could not proceed with the hearing. On that occasion, the wife was awarded $3,500 in costs because her counsel had to prepare for the hearing, which could not proceed as a result of the husband's misconduct. Throughout these delays, amounting to over a year, we were able to maintain the interim support payments, by Court Order.

 

Following the separation, the wife moved, with the parties' two children without any advance notice approximately 150km from where the parties were residing. The husband, our client, found out about this move inadvertently. The wife's move with the children was accompanied with a change in the children's school and given the distant location to which she moved, it very significantly affected the husband's relationship with the children and his ability to see them on a regular basis. The family law group at Harris + Harris LLP immediately brought a Motion in the jurisdiction in which the family resided at the time of the divorce and within a short period of time, obtained for the husband Court Ordered telephone and physical access. We were also successful in securing an Order pursuant to which the wife is responsible for delivering the children to a half-way location for the purposes of access pick-up and drop-off.