Family Law

The Family has changed
Today’s families have changed and consist of:
Single-parent families
Blended families-the result of divorce and remarriage
Childless marriages
Common-law relationships with or without children
Same-sex relationships

Other reasons for invalid marriages
Affinity: a marriage is not valid if the people are too closely related by marriage.
Consanguinity: marriage is not valid when the people are too closely related by blood.

These requirements are outlined in the Marriage Act for each province.
Marriage licence or Banns; provinces require couples to have at least one of these.
Marriage ceremony must be performed by someone with legal authority ( a minister, priest, rabbi, justice of the peace.
Minimum Age: this varies from province to province.
Blood tests are required in Alberta and P.E.I.
Formal Requirements
for Marriage

Annulment/Separation?Divorce
Since marriage is a binding contract between a man and a woman, it is required that in order to terminate or end the marriage, an annulment or divorce is the correct legal procedure.
An Annulment is a court order that states that a marriage that seems valid is legally void and never existed from the start- in other words , one of the requirements of marriage was not met, e.g. genuine consent.

SEPARATION
Separation is an intermediate step between marriage and divorce.
Unless the couple obtains a divorce, even though they may live apart, they are still legally married.

DIVORCE
Divorce is the legal procedure that ends a valid marriage.
A judge will hear the case just like Civil court procedure.
Testimony will be given by both the petitioner and the respondent and sometimes a co-respondent.

Valid Reasons for Divorce
Marriage breakdown – no one party is totally responsible – the marriage has just broken down
Adultery
Cruelty – physical or mental are valid reasons for divorce

The Essential Requirements of Marriage
The Constitution Act, 1867, divides the power of making marriage laws between the federal and provincial governments.
Section 91 gives the federal government jurisdiction over marriage and divorce and lists the ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS for a valid marriage.
Section 92 gives provincial governments jurisdiction over the solemnization of marriage which deal with the”formal requirements” of the ceremony.