Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines

In early 2005, the federal government published draft spousal support guidelines (“Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines”, or SSAG). The SSAG are not mandatory. They are meant simply as a guideline to lawyers and judges when attempting to resolve the issue of spousal support.

The SSAG assume that in a long marriage (or common law relationship) incomes will be approximately equalized, and that in a short marriage or relationship, the amount of support and the duration will be reduced. This is not always the result in court. The result may depend on other factors not addressed by the SSAG, such as the property equalization, or the health of each of the partners. Nonetheless, the SSAG have become a useful guide to possible outcomes in spousal support claims.

I admit that when they first came out, the traditional legal theorist in me was dismayed. The SSAG were unseemly - they looked like a way to inject new law into existing case law, without the benefit of parliamentary discussion, or judicial consideration.

I have had to retract my initial cynicism. The SSAG are very useful to family law practitioners and clients alike. For years, I could not tell a client with any certainty what she might expect to receive, or what he might expect to pay, in spousal support. Negotiations were often protracted, because the outcome wasn't certain. Anyone could be right, which meant both lawyers were worried about negligence claims, and both clients paid more than they should have to resolve the issue.

The SSAG have been with us since March, 2005. In that time, I have used them almost daily to give clients a rough projection of where the negotiations will begin if spousal support is an issue. Using the DivorceMate software, it takes me a few moments only to produce a professional and simple set of calculations.

The SSAG are not the final answer in many cases in which spousal support is an issue, but they are a place to start, whether the matter is in negotiation, or whether it is being litigated. Most judges I have encountered are happy to see the calculations as part of my argument, and in some reported decisions, judges in Ontario and other provinces have commented favourably on the helpful nature of the SSAG.

Certainty is a useful commodity in family law. The SSAG provide some predictability in a field where there was none, and for that reason, among many others, they are extremely useful.


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