Law.Hut says:3:18 PMHello:If one parent is not following…

Question

Law.Hut says: 3:18 PM Hello:If one parent is not following a custody and access
order, the court can do things such s include a clause, as you mention, that
police will assist in enforcing the order. The court can order a parent to pay a
fine. or by finding a parent in contempt, the court can put a prent in
jail-although that extremely rare and happens in only the most extreme cases.
The court will also often order the parent to take counselling or parenting
after separation courses, and to pay the legal fees or court costs of the other
party. They might also order compensatory extra access time to make up for
missed times, or change the order to make the times work better. The court can
also order that custody wil g o the access prent, but that is also rare, and
seen as a last ditch alternative.Customersays: 3:29 PM The ex is acting as a
sole custody parent. I have memorized the Alberta Family Law Act and know that
consequences are laid out in law, BUT this has been going on for a year because
my son did not want to cause a problem in court. He has never caused th ex any
problems but she just refuses to adhere. Is this not a chargeable offense? Is
she not disrespecting the law, the judge and the courts. She feels that she does
not have to abide by the Order.                                                
                                                                               
                                                                          
*********************************************************************          
                                                                               
                                   Does my son have any chance of getting back
to having her abide to the Order as she did in the first year of the order? 3:31
PM

Basically, can the judge force her to follow the Order? PLEASE SEE MY RESPONSE
TO THE EXPERT'S ANSWER Thank you

Law.Hut · Accepted Answer

Hello:

You ask if it is a chargeable offence for not following the order.

There is a section of the criminal code that could apply as follows. But note
that I have never heard of the police using this section regarding a family law
order, and I expect the police would instead say to you that this is a matter to
go back to the family court:

Disobeying order of court

127. (1) Every one who, without lawful excuse, disobeys a lawful order made by a
court of justice or by a person or body of persons authorized by any Act to make
or give the order, other than an order for the payment of money, is, unless a
punishment or other mode of proceeding is expressly provided by law, guilty of

(a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
two years; or

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

A parent can be cited by the family court for cont,to of a court order. This
would be similar to a criminal charge, as it would have to be established beyond
a reasonable doubt that the person willfully disobeyed th order. In that case
the person could be sent to jail. Often a judge can suspend sentence, giving a
person a chance to purge their contempt by starting to follow the order, and if
they still refuse to do so, jail can result.

Certainly the court can require that the order be followed. But if a person
won't, then the tools I outlined above are what a court will do to try and
ensure that a custody and access order is being followed.

Law.Hut · Answer

You are welcome.

We are not always online or waiting for a reply, as some customers respond a
week later, some read the answer and never respond or accept at all. I know the
email notification you get says the expert is now online, and that is language
chosen by the site, not the experts. We don't work directly for the site and
have no set hours and just answer some questions when we can.

As a family law lawyer, seeing an order or agreement being violated about
parenting times is hugely frustrating. It is a real problem that judges have
wrestled with.

Good luck to you.

Law.Hut · Answer

This is determined by section 7 (d) of the Federal Child Support Guidelines,
which states:

7. (1) In a child support order the court may, on either spouse's request,
provide for an amount to cover all or any portion of the following expenses,
which expenses may be estimated, taking into account the necessity of the
expense in relation to the child's best interests and the reasonableness of the
expense in relation to the means of the spouses and those of the child and to
the family's spending pattern prior to the separation:

(a) child care expenses incurred as a result of the custodial parent's
employment, illness, disability or education or training for employment;

(b) that portion of the medical and dental insurance premiums attributable to
the child;

(c) health related expenses that exceed insurance reimbursement by at least $100
annually, including orthodontic treatment, professional counselling provided by
a psychologist, social worker, psychiatrist or any other person, physiotherapy,
occupational therapy, speech therapy and prescription drugs, hearing aids,
glasses and contact lenses;

(d) extraordinary expenses for primary or secondary school education or for any
other educational programs that meet the child's particular needs;

(e) expenses for post-secondary education; and

(f) extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities.

The reference at 7(d) includes the words "extraordinary", so routine school fees
will not usually be an add on to the normal base amount of support.

Law.Hut · Answer

1. They can try. It is ultimately up to the judge to intros the process. The
judge may well see it as stalling and gamesmanship tactics in the mother's.
part.

2. Again, they can of course try. Some courts have refused to consider altering
an order if it says that the parties are to first try mediation, unless there is
evidence that this has been attempted and frustrated by the party alleged to
have breached other terms of the order.

3. Yes, certainly. He can ask the court to make a ruling and indicate that he is
not willing to accept a proposed interim agreement.

4. Generally, both sides can choose to file any material as they see fit, and it
will be up to the judge to decide if it is irrelevant to the issue at hand or
not. If a judge believes a party is filing much material that is not relevant
they can order court costs paid by that party to the other for the wasted time
in reviewing and responding to those.

5. And 6 This does not seem to be an issue that is central to the enforcement
issue, and your son can argue that this should not distract the court from the
more urgent and pressing issues of his access time and compliance with the
existing arrangement.

Law.Hut · Answer

If you have filed evidence, and they have filed a reply, normally there would
not be further evidence filed on your part. If they have raised something that
is new that could not have been contemplated at the time you filed your original
material, you could potentially file more material. But that would be unusual.

They can always ask for an adjournment, at any time. It is up to the court to
decide if the request is reasonable. I don't know what basis they would have to
seek one though. You have each filed your material. You do not have an
obligation to file more material, and can say you are ready to proceed with the
hearing. I don't see why they would be able to then validly ask for more time.

Law.Hut · Answer

I like your argument. I am not positive it will succeeds, and it depends on how
th court interprets "conflict" in paragraph 37, and whether that is seen as just
conflict in making a parenting decision as you argue, or a wider conflict of any
type, such as whether one person had been in breach of the contract or not.

As to,what is allowed, there are no fixed absolutes in family law. The judge
will always be the one to decidedly a certain argument is improper, or if in e
party has been caught by surprise and not been able to fairly respond to new
information or arguments. Normally a court would expect some major arguments
like the variation to be brought up earlier. Button will want to stress to the
court why doing this now is unfair to you.

The court can make a ruling on the compliance issue.

The court will generally not be pleased to get a huge volume of documents,
unless those are relevant to an important issue. I would often try to summarize
key points of such emails in the body of the material, so that a judge will have
a good idea of what is contained in the more voluminous documents without having
to perhaps read those in great detail. Trying to be succinct and filing only the
material that gives you the best way to have the judge understand and agree with
your arguments can be a huge challenge, but it is a better approach than just
filing anything and everything that has just marginal relevance or importance.

Law.Hut · Answer

If there was no final settlement, then all items are still open for negotiation,
and he could take the position that he is in agreement with the terms reached at
JDR, but the two that you mention. The prior order would continue to be in
effect pending any new formal order superseding or replacing that order. He is
free to seek to replace his lawyer at any time.

Law.Hut · Answer

I agree that the parenting order is what needs to be changed.

It may be a very tall order to get that done before this weekend. It is
technically possible to get an immediate order on a days notice, but that is
very rare, and a judge may not see this as being the level of emergency that
requires such an emergency hearing. Time with his father is important, to be
sure, but emergencies that would justify an immediate order (where the other
side will not have any or much chance to,respond ) are usually only made in the
clearest of circumstances where the child's health or safety is at immediate
risk.

So you can be all means try, but you should be prepared for the reality that it
may take a couple of weeks to get a new order. If the judge thinks that the
mother has engineered the whole situation, he or. She can order some
compensatory access to your son.

We are not allowed to refer you to specific lawyers through this site. Other
than checking the Yellow Pages, all I can suggest is that you look to a site
called Lexpert, or Canada Law List, both of which have listings of lawyers by
practice area and region. The Law Society of Alberta also has a referral service
that you could contact tomorrow.

Law.Hut says:3:18 PMHello:If one parent is not following…

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