In This Issue
Introduction
Our Office
25 Bowring Walk
Toronto, Ontario 
Canada
M3H 5Z8


Phone:  416-635-9264

Fax: 416- 635-5468

Maps and Directions

January 2019

Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre is pleased to provide you with our eNewsletter.     

Introduction:

We hope that our clients, former clients, colleagues, friends and others who have signed on to receive our newsletters will enjoy perusing this newsletter. (In case we have intruded upon you inadvertently, we apologize and you can opt out below.)  
January 2019 Update:
Bill C-78, Divorce Act Amendments: Gene C. Colman has continued his advocacy efforts on matters connected with  Federal Bill C-78 - legislation that will revise the Federal Divorce Act. Gene co-authored a brief to the Parliamentary Justice Committee that considered Bill C-78 and he also appeared before the Committee. The Committee presented its report to the Government on December 7, 2018.  The Commons will presumably consider the Bill as amended in third reading. Then, the Bill is off for further consideration in the Senate.

ESP Thought of the Day:  The  Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre Equal Shared Parenting - Thought of the Day  continues to receive positive feedback from many sources.  Each Monday and Thursday at 8 a.m. we send out a salient excerpt from the literature re Equal Shared Parenting.  If you wish to remain informed with respect to ESP, then you can sign up with a click right here . Just fill in your name and email address and press "submit".  You can also read back issues by clicking here .
 
Consultation: If you are interested in a consultation with us, please visit the consultation page on our website or call our law clerk, Kim Pitre, at extension #100.

Court Victories:  
We are pleased to report the victory of our client who was the subject of a ten-year paternity fraud. Our client did not have a relationship with the child, but he had been paying child support for almost ten years. He then discovered, through paternity testing, that the child was not his. At that point, our client was in arrears for over $30,000 of child support. We were able to obtain a court order for the release of all future financial responsibility for the child including all future child support. We negotiated the arrears down to $4,500. Jenny Kirshen was lead counsel in this case.  All in all, the result was quite favourable to our client.  
CLE's and Events Attended: 
Continuing Legal Education is an important component of our professional lives.  We endeavour to keep up with the law.  Attendees report the highlights to the rest of our team at our regular firm lunches.  Here is a sample of some courses that our lawyers have recently attended:
Gene C. Colman:
  • 7 November 2018: The Ethics of Anonymous Whistle Blowing, Yeshiva University, Toronto. 
Gloria Antwi:
  • 8 May 2018: Family Law Motions. Ontario Bar Association. Focused on when to bring a motion, preparation, written materials, oral advocacy, costs, enforcement of orders, the aftermath of motions, and more. 
Jenny Kirshen:

  • 6 November 2018: Advanced Strategies to Resolve Family Law Files - Part 1: Settling the Family Law Matter within the Court Process. The Law Society of Ontario. Covered the key aspects needed to move the matter towards a settlement including, negotiation strategies, understanding what outside resources and experts are needed to assist in resolution, tips on drafting conference briefs and maximizing the value of the trial management conference. 
  • 12 November 2018: 8th Annual Recent Developments in Advanced Issues in Child and Spousal Support. Covered critical case law update, challenging support issues with older dependents, essentials of child support and the high-income earner, strategies for defending and advancing claims for retroactive support. 
     
  Kulbir Rehal:
 
  • 15 October 2018: Experts in Family Law: Critical Issues and Practical Strategies. Osgoode PD. Course focused on how and when to use and expert 
  • 20 November 2018: FDRIO Conference - Through the Lens of Change: Parenting Coordination. FDRIO. Courses focused on parenting coordinators, their roles, and how this field is emerging. 
Blog Posts:
Family Law & Retirement - Can I Ever Retire?
Retirement presents unique challenges.  We ran this post in our previous newsletter.  We continue to receive a large number of inquiries on this topic and therefore, we are repeating the retirement blog post again this month.

Advocate Daily Articles Featuring Gene C. Colman:
Parental alienation allegations not a 'secret weapon' in court
Parental alienation - a method of manipulation often used by parents during a contested divorce - can include a range of behaviours in varying degrees of severity.
Gene criticizes a CBC article.    Read More
Study boosts case for presumption of equal shared parenting 
The federal government should carefully reconsider its landmark family law reforms to take account of "game-changing" research on the value of equal shared parenting (ESP).
Gene explains how  an upcoming important article by Prof. William Fabricius of Arizona should transform the debate with respect to ESP.   Read More
Colman to MPs: it's time to support equal shared parenting
Parliamentarians deciding on amendments to federal family laws should acquaint themselves with research on the value of equal-shared parenting (ESP) rather than just dismissing the idea out of hand.
 
Gene laments the apparent lack of insight and willful  ignorance of the social science research that MP's demonstrated.  Read More.  
 

Sincerely,

Gene C. Colman
Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre

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