Here is the press release from the SCC:
http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/news_release/2007/07-11-29.3a/07-11-29.3a.html
Thursday 29 November 2007
LEAVE GRANTED!!!
We are going to the Supreme Court of Canada!
Leave was granted today for Nanc's case to proceed. We have been expecting it for the last few weeks, hence nothing to report. It has been a tense time but now another hurdle has been passed. Jack (Nanc's lawyer) is excited about the opportunity to craft new law setting down much needed guidelines for the process of forming agreements in family law. That is really the core of Nanc's case. It is unconscionable that a stronger spouse can literally hold a gun to the other spouse's head to force him or her to sign an agreement, and then have that agreement be unassailable by legal means. That was the gist of the Appeals Court's decision, and it can not be allowed to stand!
More later, we are too excited.........
Leave was granted today for Nanc's case to proceed. We have been expecting it for the last few weeks, hence nothing to report. It has been a tense time but now another hurdle has been passed. Jack (Nanc's lawyer) is excited about the opportunity to craft new law setting down much needed guidelines for the process of forming agreements in family law. That is really the core of Nanc's case. It is unconscionable that a stronger spouse can literally hold a gun to the other spouse's head to force him or her to sign an agreement, and then have that agreement be unassailable by legal means. That was the gist of the Appeals Court's decision, and it can not be allowed to stand!
More later, we are too excited.........
Tuesday 6 November 2007
TOCK!
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Wednesday » December 19 » 2007
Top court petitioned on divorce equality
Wife loses out because of 'access to legal advice'
Joey Thompson
The Province
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
An Abbotsford mom who claims she came up $600,000 short in a mediated separation deal with her ex-husband is hoping Canada's top court will grant her plea for pay equity.
Fifty-two-year-old Nancy Rick says she proposed the settlement pay-out to Ben Brandsema while an emotional wreck triggered by a strict, abusive upbringing and aggravated by 28 stormy years with the dairy farmer.
The mother of four, who tried to end her life while in her teens, said she was too vulnerable and confused, a result of post-traumatic-stress disorder, to see she wasn't getting her fair share. Nor was she able to detect that Brandsema hadn't disclosed the true value of the couple's many holdings, including several large properties, cattle, a milk quota, equipment, vehicles and RRSPs.
She said she was too depressed to even read, much less do the math on the 2001 split-up agreement that gave her approximately $1 million.
Indeed, a specialist in post-trauma psychiatry testified that Rick's PTSD symptoms were "among the most extreme" he had ever seen.
A trial judge in B.C. Supreme Court agreed the homemaker, who laboured on the farm alongside her husband, was troubled and that Brandsema, knowing she was mentally unstable when they began negotiating, took advantage of her.
Justice Harry Slade said Rick received only 30 per cent of the family assets instead of the 50/50 split the couple had initially planned on -- partly because Brandsema had provided misleading information about their $3-million estate after they split in 2000.
He said Brandsema owed her an additional $649,680.
But B.C.'s top court said too bad, so sad if Rick missed the boat. After all, the all-male panel noted, she had consulted lawyers, accountants and two mediators. In a 2003 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada implied that access to professional legal advice can compensate for some vulnerabilities or imbalances.
"Should the husband have been obliged to tell the wife that her proposal was not enough and that she should demand more?" top court Justice Edward Chiasson asked.
"This is not a case of mental incapacity, undue influence or duress. [They] were participating in mediation, part of that process involved the recommendation that the parties obtain legal advice. The wife had done so and did so again.
"[She] was troubled but it is clear that she knew what she was doing."
Chiasson said the lower court allowed equality to trump fairness.
But family law lawyer Jack Hittrich says the appeal court's ruling sends a disturbing, chilling message to Canadians: Even when a separating spouse has mental-health issues, even when there was misrepresentation as to assets, even when they both intended that their assets be equalized, as long as they had access to legal advice, the agreement will be binding.
"This case raises significant issues of national importance about the duties of negotiating parties in family law agreements," he states in a written petition to the nation's top court. "Without proper judicial guidance from our highest court, thousands of future couples will either be deprived of just settlements or will have to face costly and uncertain litigation."
- - -
Phone: 604-605-2119
Fax: 604-605-2099
jthompson@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2007
Close
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Wednesday » December 19 » 2007
Top court petitioned on divorce equality
Wife loses out because of 'access to legal advice'
Joey Thompson
The Province
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
An Abbotsford mom who claims she came up $600,000 short in a mediated separation deal with her ex-husband is hoping Canada's top court will grant her plea for pay equity.
Fifty-two-year-old Nancy Rick says she proposed the settlement pay-out to Ben Brandsema while an emotional wreck triggered by a strict, abusive upbringing and aggravated by 28 stormy years with the dairy farmer.
The mother of four, who tried to end her life while in her teens, said she was too vulnerable and confused, a result of post-traumatic-stress disorder, to see she wasn't getting her fair share. Nor was she able to detect that Brandsema hadn't disclosed the true value of the couple's many holdings, including several large properties, cattle, a milk quota, equipment, vehicles and RRSPs.
She said she was too depressed to even read, much less do the math on the 2001 split-up agreement that gave her approximately $1 million.
Indeed, a specialist in post-trauma psychiatry testified that Rick's PTSD symptoms were "among the most extreme" he had ever seen.
A trial judge in B.C. Supreme Court agreed the homemaker, who laboured on the farm alongside her husband, was troubled and that Brandsema, knowing she was mentally unstable when they began negotiating, took advantage of her.
Justice Harry Slade said Rick received only 30 per cent of the family assets instead of the 50/50 split the couple had initially planned on -- partly because Brandsema had provided misleading information about their $3-million estate after they split in 2000.
He said Brandsema owed her an additional $649,680.
But B.C.'s top court said too bad, so sad if Rick missed the boat. After all, the all-male panel noted, she had consulted lawyers, accountants and two mediators. In a 2003 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada implied that access to professional legal advice can compensate for some vulnerabilities or imbalances.
"Should the husband have been obliged to tell the wife that her proposal was not enough and that she should demand more?" top court Justice Edward Chiasson asked.
"This is not a case of mental incapacity, undue influence or duress. [They] were participating in mediation, part of that process involved the recommendation that the parties obtain legal advice. The wife had done so and did so again.
"[She] was troubled but it is clear that she knew what she was doing."
Chiasson said the lower court allowed equality to trump fairness.
But family law lawyer Jack Hittrich says the appeal court's ruling sends a disturbing, chilling message to Canadians: Even when a separating spouse has mental-health issues, even when there was misrepresentation as to assets, even when they both intended that their assets be equalized, as long as they had access to legal advice, the agreement will be binding.
"This case raises significant issues of national importance about the duties of negotiating parties in family law agreements," he states in a written petition to the nation's top court. "Without proper judicial guidance from our highest court, thousands of future couples will either be deprived of just settlements or will have to face costly and uncertain litigation."
- - -
Phone: 604-605-2119
Fax: 604-605-2099
jthompson@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2007
Close
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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