In today’s society, it appears that divorce court has become a battleground where children are fought over by parents competing to be the “primary” parent or to avoid being marginalized.
The main focus of Bill C-560, which is scheduled for second reading on March 25, is for family law courts to place emphasis on Equal Shared Parenting (ESP) when considering the best interest of the children.
“The true purpose of Bill C-560 is to ensure that people remember that adults are divorcing each other, not their children and that Equal Shared Parenting is the best solution for the majority of families,” says Brian Ludmer of LudmerLaw who helped draft the wording for Bill C-560.
“There is a rebuttable presumption in favour of ESP, so for appropriate cases, the court will specify why a different solution was ordered. However, it needs to be established that the best interests of the children in a case will be ‘substantially enhanced’ by something other than ESP.”
The official summary of Bill C-560 states: This enactment amends the Divorce Act to replace the concept of “custody orders” with that of “parenting orders.” It instructs judges, when making a parenting order, to apply the principle of equal parenting unless it is established that the best interests of the child would be substantially enhanced by allocating parental responsibility other than equally.
In the current system it is traditional for the parent who gets “custody” to have the children live with them for the majority of the time.
“Why do this to children who are used to seeing both of their parents every day?” asks Ludmer. “There is plenty of evidence that being marginalized from a parent is harmful to children and that ESP produces the best results for most children.”
Brian Ludmer (www.ludmerlaw.com) has become an authority in business law and family law: one by choice and the other by necessity. These two practice areas often intersect, allowing Brian to combine his unique insights on behalf of his clients. In the course of overcoming challenges in his personal life, Brian has become skilled in family law, focusing on high conflict divorce, parental alienation and high net worth property and income disputes. Having found a successful resolution to parental alienation for his own family, Brian is actively sought out as lead or strategic counsel by clients on matters where this devastating and poorly understood form of child abuse hurts children and parents alike. He is an advisory board member to the Parental Alienation Awareness Organization and the International Support Network for Alienated Families, as well as a co-founder of Lawyers for Shared Parenting.
Contact: Brian Ludmer 416-781-0334 or (cell) 416-432-7444 or brian@ludmerlaw.com
(Brian is available for interviews between 1:15 – 2:15 pm or after 5:00 pm)
Media contact: Megan Bray 416-479-5261 or megan@ludmerlaw.com.
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