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Monday, October 26, 2015

Tips for completing a Financial Statement (4) - Ontario


This is one in a series of our posts on this topic.

A Financial Statement is likely the most important document you will complete in a family law case.

We have never heard a client say "oh boy, I am looking forward to filling out this form" on receiving the blank draft but do not let the document scare you into inertia.

You will need to set aside quiet time to complete the document in draft, as best you can. If you get stuck, the trick is not to put the exercise aside and forget about it - the trick is to get motivated and get help, if necessary. This help may come from your lawyer and/or their Law Clerk (at a lower rate, we might add).

The key is to identify that you need help and to ask for it. All questions are reasonable - do not be afraid to ask. Remember that if you get stuck on an area of the form, that likely means the information is not straightforward - all the more reason your legal team should know about it and assist you in identifying it properly on the Financial Statement.

Financial Statement are fundamental to all family law cases. You and your spouse will each have to complete this document whether you are negotiating the outstanding issues, whether you are mediating them, arbitrating them or having them resolved with the assistance of the Court.

Financial Statements tell the reader a lot about you and your financial circumstances, at various points in time. This information, in turn, may be vital to your ability to pursue certain claims before the Court. What does this mean? For example, if you are asking for spousal support, you need to establish on your Financial Statement that you have need (you do that in your budget/Expenses) and also that your income is not sufficient to meet that need (this is not the only basis on which spousal support may be ordered but we are using "need" here to illustrate our point). By way of another example, if you are making a claim of equalization and you had significant assets at date of marriage for which you wish to take date-of-marriage deductions, then these assets need to be properly reflected in the assets portion of your Financial Statement.

TIP #4 re: completing a Financial Statement - the better you understand the reason you are expected to complete a particular section of the document, the more on-point and accurate your entries will be. Ask questions if answers to them will help you understand the form. You will be helping yourself and your legal team.


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