Weyburn, Saskatchewan Family Law and Divorce Lawyers

Plan to divorce your spouse? Been presented with divorce papers? However you’ve come to this life-changing event, you will need help. Divorce is a complex legal matter with the potential to forever alter your net worth and your relationship with your children.

The team at Merchant Law specializes in tackling the toughest, most complex divorces and working them into Win-Win settlements that save you time and money. Our lawyers are devoted to coming up with real solutions that help you meet your goals for protecting your business, keeping the family home, keeping spousal support low, or for any other area of concern.

We are especially adept at handling challenging high net worth and farm divorces.

What should high net worth couples know about divorcing in Weyburn?

One thing you should know is that settling out of court usually brings the most favorable outcomes.

When you take your complex asset profile into divorce court you lay the entire matter before a judge who is barely familiar with you, your business, your investment strategy, or your goals. The judge will do their best to divide your assets 50/50, and will not care about tax consequences, whether or not the assets become devalued by the division strategy, or whether or not either party has the ability to maintain the assets once the divorce is done.

By settling out of court you get the opportunity to work with your lawyers to take a deep dive into your profile. This allows all of these issues to be taken into account and for offers and business agreements to be made that help you meet your most important goals. 

If, for example, you care most about keeping a family business in your own name and under your own control then a divorce settlement can be structured in a way that allows you to do that. 

Should your high net worth divorce go to litigation we will be prepared. We treat every case like it’s going to go to litigation from Day 1, even as we work towards settling out of court.

What should farmers know about getting a divorce in Saskatchewan?

Divorce can threaten the farm’s ability to survive. Again, the goal should be to negotiate a workable settlement, because if you go into court you may get a judge who doesn’t understand what it takes to get a farm up and running. The judge may force the sale of your home, land, or equipment, effectively putting your farm out of business. 

Our expert farm divorce lawyers can create business arrangements and solutions that lead to a workable settlement. Our goal is to preserve your ability to use your farm equipment, to adequately create child support and spousal support arrangements that take your variable income into account, to preserve your family farm home, and to preserve any land you need to keep the farm viable. 

We have used structured buy-outs, equalization payments, the divestment of less-necessary assets, and other strategies to help farmers like you protect their inheritance and their investment. We also have plenty of strategies to help you protect your property when marital and non-marital property have become commingled and exposed, a common issue in farm divorces. 

Saskatchewan Child Support, Child Custody, and Visitation

If you have children then your settlement will require provisions for support, custody, and visitation.

Negotiating child support is often straightforward. Many couples simply use the federal child support guidelines. This works when both parents receive a regular income and when there are no other special needs or considerations. Even when this isn’t the case, the federal guidelines create a minimum threshold that child support arrangements must meet.

We help our clients negotiate child support arrangements when things are a little less straightforward.

As for custody and access, you should be aware that the courts favored shared custody arrangements whenever possible, or joint custody arrangements with liberal amounts of parenting time. For the most part courts are trying to keep most children and most parents in one another’s lives. It’s usually not worth it to fight this. It’s usually more profitable to focus on creating a co-parenting plan that will work for your family circumstances.

The sole exception are times when one parent is a clear and present danger to the children. If you are seeking sole custody because your ex is abusive, has a drug or alcohol problem, or has mental health issues then you should speak to one of our child custody lawyers today.

How does a common law divorce work? Do you need a separation agreement?

You do not need a formal agreement to end your common law marriage. It is considered terminated when you live separate and apart for more than one year. Yet you do need a formal separation agreement if you want to protect your rights.

Both members of a common law marriage have a right to divide the marital property equally. In addition, a common law spouse may be eligible for spousal support. If there are children, child custody and child support arrangements must be made, just as they would be made in a formal marriage.

The formal separation agreement is recognized and enforced by the courts. A verbal agreement will not be. Protect your legal rights by reaching out to the team at Merchant Law today. 

Need help with your divorce? Contact Merchant Law now. 

We have offices in  Saskatoon, Regina, and Moose Jaw, but we help people throughout the province, including residents of Weyburn. We also serve other areas like Prince Albert, Swift Current, North Battleford, Estevan, Warman, Weyburn, Martensville, Lloydminster, Lloydminster and White City. Many of our lawyers have decades of family law experience and have even been published in prestigious family law journals, which means when you work with us you get all of the advantages that come with working with truly skilled professionals. 

Schedule an appointment to go over the facts of your Weyburn, SK, divorce case by calling (306) 848-7777 today. One of our capable family law and divorce lawyers will be happy to advise you.