02
Real Estate Law
Purchases, sales, refinancing, title, mortgage enforcement and power of sale.
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Family Law
Steady counsel through the hardest year of your life.
Overview
Separation, divorce, parenting and support — handled with clarity when things are hardest.
Family matters are rarely only legal. They are financial, practical and personal all at once, and the decisions made in the first few months tend to set the shape of everything that follows. We give you a clear read on where you stand, what the realistic outcomes are, and what each path will cost you — in money and in time.
Family LawBuzi Law · Ontario
When to call
Any of these apply?
If one of these is true, the conversation is worth having now rather than after the next step is taken.
- You have separated, or you are about to
- Your spouse has retained a lawyer and you have not
- You are being asked to sign something today
- Support has stopped, or has never started
- A parenting arrangement has broken down
- You own a business or property together
What we handle
The work, specifically.
01
Separation agreements
A properly drafted agreement resolves property, support and parenting without a courtroom, and holds up if it is ever challenged.
02
Divorce applications
Simple, joint and contested divorces, including the paperwork most people find impossible to navigate alone.
03
Parenting time & decision-making
Schedules, decision-making responsibility, relocation and the practical arrangements that actually work week to week.
04
Child and spousal support
Guideline calculations, imputing income where support is being avoided, and variation when circumstances change.
05
Property and the matrimonial home
Equalisation of net family property, exclusions, and what happens to the home you both live in.
06
Marriage and cohabitation agreements
Prenuptial and cohabitation agreements that are properly negotiated, disclosed and executed so they stand up later.
Who we act for
The people on this file.
01
Separating spouses
Married or common-law, at any stage — from the first conversation to varying an order years later.
02
Parents
Where the dispute is about schedules, decision-making, relocation or support rather than blame.
03
Business and property owners
Where a separation touches a corporation, a rental property or an inheritance and the numbers matter.
How it runs
From first call to closed file.
01
Intake and disclosure
We establish the facts, exchange financial disclosure, and identify what is genuinely in dispute rather than what merely feels contested.
02
Position and strategy
You receive a written assessment: the realistic range of outcomes on each issue, the cost of pursuing each, and our recommendation.
03
Negotiation or mediation
Most matters resolve here. We negotiate from a prepared position, which is what determines whose terms the agreement lands on.
04
Agreement or court
A separation agreement properly drafted and executed, or — where the other side will not engage — an application and the court steps that follow.
Fees
What this costs
Family files are quoted hourly because the volume of work depends almost entirely on the other side's conduct, which we cannot price in advance. Discrete pieces are fixed fee: a separation agreement drafted from agreed terms, independent legal advice on an agreement someone has put in front of you, an uncontested divorce. You get the estimate in writing before we start, and a call rather than an invoice if the scope changes.
Get a written estimateQuestions
Answered plainly.
Most family matters resolve without a trial. Negotiation, mediation and a well-drafted separation agreement settle the large majority of files. Court is a tool we use when the other side will not engage or when there is urgency — not a default.
Child support follows the Federal Child Support Guidelines, based on the payor's income and the number of children. It sounds mechanical, but disputes about what someone actually earns — self-employment, bonuses, undisclosed income — are common and worth getting right.
An uncontested divorce commonly takes a few months from filing, largely dictated by court processing times. Contested matters depend entirely on how far apart the parties are. Separating the divorce itself from the financial issues often speeds things up.
That depends on how much is in dispute and how cooperative the other side is. We give you a written fee estimate before any work starts, and we tell you when a fight is not worth what it will cost you.
No. Acting for both parties in a separation is a conflict of interest. What is possible is that one of you retains us to draft the agreement and the other obtains independent legal advice elsewhere — which is required in any event for the agreement to hold up.
It is a lawyer reviewing an agreement with you, alone, before you sign, and certifying that you understood it and were not pressured. Without it, an agreement is far easier to set aside later. If someone has handed you a document to sign, get it reviewed before you do.
Related
Other practice areas.
03
Estate Law
Wills, powers of attorney, probate and the administration of an estate.
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04
Immigration Law
Permanent residence, sponsorship, work and study permits, citizenship and appeals.
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Speak with a lawyer
Tell us what happened.
We will tell you where you stand.
A short conversation costs nothing and usually saves a great deal. You will get a straight answer about whether you have a matter, what it is likely to involve, and what it will cost.