4.0 Conclusion

The findings in this report help provide insight into the characteristics of current child support cases in Canada. According to most lawyer and judge respondents, child support disputes occurred in at least half of their cases. This is equally true when looking at shared parenting time cases and cases involving income determination, where most respondents reported seeing disputes at least half of the time.

The most difficult-to-settle child support issue, as reported by lawyers and judges, was a party’s lack of compliance with income disclosure obligations. Depending on the type of case, specific issues were identified as being more difficult to settle. In shared parenting time cases, the most litigious issue involved getting both parties to agree on the type of parenting arrangement and on whether a shared parenting time arrangement is the best approach for the family. When looking at special or extraordinary expenses, lawyers and judges reported that post-secondary education expenses and extraordinary expenses for extracurricular activities were the most difficult to settle. In cases involving income determination, the most challenging issues involved tax dividends or capital gains, irregular income patterns, and self-employment or cash income.

Most lawyers and judges also reported that challenges with initial and ongoing income disclosure obligations occurred in at least half of their cases. The top issues varied between initial and ongoing income disclosure obligations. With initial income disclosure obligations, self-employment, access to income information and parties’ failure to file income tax were the most challenging issues. In cases involving ongoing income disclosure obligations, a party’s refusal to provide financial information was the most challenging issue.

These survey results are not intended to be representative of all family law cases in Canada, as the 417 lawyer and 109 judge respondents represent only a fraction of those working in the family justice system in Canada. However, the findings do provide a better understanding of some of the child support practices and issues in 2022. The next iteration of the National Family Law Survey is expected to launch in Fall 2024.