Family Maintenance and Support from the Estate of a Person Who Stood in the Place of a Parent, Final Report 117

Family Maintenance and Support from the Estate of a Person Who Stood in the Place of a Parent, Final Report 117 recommends that the Wills and Succession Act be reformed to allow a child to apply for family maintenance and support from the estate of a person who stood in the place of a parent. Who is a Person Standing in the Place of a Parent? To be in place of a parent a person must […]

January 25, 2022

Family Maintenance and Support from the Estate of a Person that Stood in the Place of a Parent, Report for Discussion 34

November 3, 2020

The Matrimonial Property Act: A Case Law Review

The Alberta Law Reform Institute proposed the legislation that became the Matrimonial Property Act (MPA) more than 30 years ago and there has been no substantive amendment to the MPA since then. ALRI has received suggestions that the legislation is in need of revision but there was little consensus as to which areas were in need of review. In order to advance the research, ALRI financed the work of Annie Voss-Altman, a student at the […]

October 8, 2010

Court-Connected Family Mediation Programs in Canada, Research Paper 20

This paper addresses the use of (non-litigated) mediation as an adjunct to litigation within the court system. The paper surveys: the mediation process (as it was at the time of publication), with a discussion of its advantages and disadvantages compared to litigation; the different mediation programs available (at the time of publication); descriptions of child-protection mediation programs released immediately prior to publication in British Columbia and Nova Scotia; and the empirical effectiveness of mediation programs […]

May 3, 1994

Non-Pecuniary Damages in Wrongful Death Actions, Final Report 66

This report recommends four significant changes in respect to recovery of damages for non-pecuniary loss in wrongful death action of the 1979 enacted section 8 of Fatal Accidents Act. First, the new term “damages for grief and loss of the guidance, care and companionship of the deceased” is used to describe more accurately what is being compensated. Second, the levels of damages (the existing level of damages has been rejected as totally inadequate) are raised to […]

May 30, 1993

The Domestic Relations Act (DRA) – Phase 1. Family Relationships: Obsolete Actions, Final Report 65

With the changes in attitude toward marriage and family that have occurred over past decades many provisions of the Domestic Relations Act have become outmoded. This report recommends the abolition of six obsolete matrimonial actions: restitution of conjugal rights, judicial separation, damages in tort for adultery, enticement or harbouring a spouse; damages in tort for harbouring of a child, damages in contract for breach of a promise of marriage, and jactitation of marriage. This report also recommends […]

March 29, 1993

Conference Materials, International Invitational Conference on Matrimonial and Child Support, 27-30 May 1981, Research Paper 14

This report is a summary of a conference held to discuss the results of Research Paper #13, Matrimonial Support Failures: Reasons, Profiles and Perceptions of Individuals Involved. The report includes four speeches given at that conference, viz.: “Paying of Maintenance in Sweden,” by Anders Agell; “Matrimonial Support Failures: Reasons, Profiles, and Perceptions of Individuals Involved, a Commentary,” by Judith Cassetty; “Maintenance in Britain,” by Colin Gibson; and “The Economics of Divorce: Social and Economic Consequences […]

October 3, 1982

Matrimonial Support Failures: Reasons, Profiles and Perceptions of Individuals Involved: Volume 1 Summary Report, Volume 2 Technical Reports, Research Paper 13

This report was created in order to aid the reform of the matrimonial and child support system in Alberta. Before its publication, there was little data regarding the reasons for failure in the (then) extant system. The report analyzes data from the Supreme Court (now Court of Queen’s Bench) in Edmonton and Calgary, the Family Courts in Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, and Grande Prairie, door-to-door surveys of those involved with maintenance orders, and a study of […]

March 3, 1981

Family Relief, Final Report 29

This report was undertaken as part of ALRI’s studies on the reform of family law. The Family Relief Act provides for an award from an estate for the maintenance of the surviving spouse and a limited class of children. The maintenance must come from the net estate after payment of claims against the deceased. An eligible dependant may apply to the court within six months of the grant of probate or administration. There is provision […]

June 1, 1978

Administration of Family Law: The Unified Family Court: Constitutional Opinions, Research Paper 11

This paper comprises opinions by Professor W.R. Lederman, Q.C., and Professor P.N. McDonald, on the constitutional validity (at the time of publication) of a unified family court in Alberta, including both federally appointed and provincially appointed judges (i.e. judges appointed by the Governor General in Council and the Lieutenant Governor in Council). Professor McDonald’s opinion is actually comprised of a number of smaller opinions written in 1976 and 1977, which include responses to some other […]

May 4, 1978