#1 – Contacting your spouse or his/her lawyer

The first step your family law lawyer will be taking in your matter will be to contact your spouse or your spouse’s lawyer in writing to advise that he/she has been retained to represent you. In this letter, your lawyer may also identify the issues in dispute, address any urgent issues and will set out a list of financial disclosure that we require your spouse to produce by a specified date.

#2 – Financial Statement and Financial Disclosure

At or immediate following the initial consultation, your lawyer will provide to you a blank financial statement and will have explained to you how to fill this statement out.  Your lawyer will also specifically advise you of the documents that he/she requires that you produce.

Now it is time for you to work on filling out the financial statement. Your lawyer’s clerk is available to help you in this regard and will answer any questions you might have.

You will also pull together the financial disclosure that has been requested of you by the clerk and the lawyer

Once you provide all of this to the clerk, your lawyer will be able to complete a draft of your financial statement for you to review and when you are satisfied with the draft you will attend at your lawyer’s office to swear the statement. Your lawyer will also put together a financial disclosure brief with all of your disclosure to be sent to opposing counsel along with your sworn financial statement.

Meanwhile your spouse has been doing the same with his/her own lawyer and will provide their own sworn financial statement and disclosure.

#3 – Calculations and Offer

Once your lawyer receives financial disclosure from opposing counsel, he/she will be able to do the following:

• calculate child support
• prepare Spousal Support Advisory Guideline (SSAG) calculations
• prepare a net family property statement
• prepared an offer to settle; and
• ultimately prepare a comprehensive separation agreement which the parties will hopefully execute.

#4 – Preparation of Court Materials

If your matter requires litigation, in addition to your financial statement, your lawyer will also be preparing your Application (or Answer, if you are the responding party) and if you have children your Affidavit re: Parenting, which are required by the Court.

If you have already been served with court materials, your lawyer will immediately need to work on preparing your responding materials as you only have 30 days from the date you were served with an Application to respond with your Answer and Financial Statement.  In some cases, your lawyer may be able to negotiate an extension of time to serve and file your responding materials.

If you are served with court materials, CONTACT A FAMILY LAW LAWYER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

#5 – Negotiation and Drafting of Separation Agreement

If you and spouse can resolve the issues in dispute, your lawyer will draft a comprehensive separation agreement that sets out all of the terms and conditions of the settlement. You and your spouse will be bound by these terms once you sign the agreement.

Lianne B. Eklove
Eklove Family Law

For more information about Lianne Eklove please click http://divorceangels.ca/vendor/lianne-b-eklove/?r=7506