Monday, June 06, 2005
Conference Fun...
Friday I attended a Family Law conference. There were some great topics, including:
The use of Arbitration Act by Religious groups to mediate divorce settlements... this topic has been in the news this past year in Ontario, as some Muslim groups want to be able to do mediation using Shariah Law to sort out divorce issues for separating couples.
How the Vital Statistics Act does not "work" in today's family combinations. It allows for two parents (one mother and one father) to be on birth certificates... but meanwhile, what with reproductive technologies and same sex couples, there may be a problem with this. Some kids have two moms while others have three or four parents. Caselaw is evolving across Canada and the US to deal with this issue. There is a case in California where there were 6 potential parents for an unborn child... and the court found that the child had no parents. The Court of Appeal turned this decision over and found that the parents who had engineered the pregnancy were the legal parents of the child, even though they were not the biological parents.
An interesting explanation of how the new Spousal Support Guidelines work. This should help in many cases where women have stayed home to raise kids for a number of years. Unlike our Federal Child Support Guidelines, these guidelines are true guidelines, not actual law (as of yet). We got to hear about the research behind them and how to use them.
Lots more... and a great lunch!
The use of Arbitration Act by Religious groups to mediate divorce settlements... this topic has been in the news this past year in Ontario, as some Muslim groups want to be able to do mediation using Shariah Law to sort out divorce issues for separating couples.
How the Vital Statistics Act does not "work" in today's family combinations. It allows for two parents (one mother and one father) to be on birth certificates... but meanwhile, what with reproductive technologies and same sex couples, there may be a problem with this. Some kids have two moms while others have three or four parents. Caselaw is evolving across Canada and the US to deal with this issue. There is a case in California where there were 6 potential parents for an unborn child... and the court found that the child had no parents. The Court of Appeal turned this decision over and found that the parents who had engineered the pregnancy were the legal parents of the child, even though they were not the biological parents.
An interesting explanation of how the new Spousal Support Guidelines work. This should help in many cases where women have stayed home to raise kids for a number of years. Unlike our Federal Child Support Guidelines, these guidelines are true guidelines, not actual law (as of yet). We got to hear about the research behind them and how to use them.
Lots more... and a great lunch!
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Reproductive technology is one of my "pet interests", I've love to hear more about how the law is starting to catch up with the science.
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