Legal Question in Family Law in Canada

Re: family law

This question was directed to a British Columbia law firm and must be answered with reference to BC law. The law varies from Province to Province.

In BC a spous is only responsible for the debts that the spouse has "signed for" - that is for debts that the spouse has agreed with the creditor to pay, but if the debt is something the debtor spouse incurred for a family purpose (food, vacation, housing, etc) then there can be an offset from the asset division to compensate the debtor spouse from the non-debtor's share 9to compensate for the 1/2 of the benefit the non-debror had from the debt incurred). Sometimes the offset can be made from spousal support.