Legal Question in Family Law in Canada

Re: maintenance enforcment

As noted on the lawGuru website all questions directed to this lawfirm must be answered with reference to British Columbia law. The law varies from Province to Province.

The question is far too braod to be answered any way except very generically; a complee answer would take several hundred pages. At the basic level, child support is the right of the child and not of the custodial parent. It must however be paid to the custodial parent, who is free to ustilize the money for the family unit as the custodial parent sees fit. Except in unusual and quite rare circumstances, a custodial parent is not free to bargian away or agree to anything less than the amount prescribed by the Child Support Guidelines.

It is very proper and acceptable for a non-custodial parent pays money to a child directly because a responsible and loving parent will voluntarily provide more than the minimum to the child, and it is (depending on the age of the child) a responsible and acceptable act to provide extra spending money directly to the child.

However any money given tot he child directly may not be deducted from the child suupport payable to the custodial parent, and this is so regardless of the wishes of the non-custodial parent or the child.