FAMILY LAW Please advise re the following FAMILY LAW SITUATION 1.

What province is this?

What does the agreement say about a material change in circumstances?

The way this usually works is that when there is a Separation Agreement the parties try and foresee and deal with all future eventualities.

So, usually a provision is inserted into an agreement when there is spousal support indicating when spousal support can be varied. A list of what is considered agreed upon material changes is circumstances is usually listed.

So, in this case the list could include things like the husband taking reasonable retirement, the husband suffering a catastrophic situation rendering him unemployable, and the wife entering into a spousal relationship.

The spousal relationship would include a legal marriage and a common law relationship.

Usually this change means that there can be a review of support but not that it automatically ends.

Does the help?

The new partners income is considered if there is a variation application to vary the support.

It generally depends on the agreement.

There is no need for Court approval of any agreement.

If the parties each had independent legal advice and if there was full financial disclosure then it's likely that the agreement would be binding.