Changing a Consent Order – YLaw’s Rare and Latest BC Court Case Success

YLaw’s latest court success in challenging and changing a consent Order has yet again set precedent for how spousal and child support will be treated despite couples agreeing to them in a separation agreement or a consent order. One of the hardest changes to do to a final consent Order is a change in spousal support – specially if the order is 5 years old. And more importantly, 12 years after separation. The courts will not change a consent Order on spousal support unless extraordinary circumstances exist. Even then, chances are low.

Before we talk about YLaw’s secret in changing a spousal support consent Order 5 years after it was made, let’s look at what is involved in changing a consent Order, what you can do to apply for it and how to do it:

Changing a Consent Family Law Order in BC

BC family law consent orders are as bullet proof as a family law agreement can get. Once you get your agreement signed and stamped by a judge or court, that agreement is final. In very, very rare circumstances you can change the consent Order by showing evidence that is extremely complicated and sensitive. Courts do not vary consent orders at all costs unless there is a very serious reason to change them. That is exactly what happened with YLaw’s recent court success, reported here. We will get to the details in a second but let’s first look at what you can apply to change -from easiest to hardest:

What are You Trying to Change in Your Consent Order?

Usually family law consent orders involve the following issues and changing them in order of easy to difficult is listed below:

1. Child Support;
2. Child Custody;
3. Spousal Support; and
4. Property and debt division;

Let’s look at the chances of success when it comes to changing the above factors in a family law consent Order:

Changing a Family Law Consent Order on Child Support

This is the easiest way of changing a consent Order. Child Support is the right of the child, so if your income or the other parent’s income fluctuate or change, you can easily apply to change the consent order because of a change in incomes and a new child support amount will be made. To learn more about changing a child support order, read here. 

Changing a Consent Order on Custody

This is when it gets harder: you need to show a material change in circumstances to change custody orders. So you need to show a change in the needs of you, the child or your spouse that make the current current custody arrangement difficult or impossible. This usually happens when:

• one or both of the parents moves;
• one or both parents become disabled;
• one or both parents become drug addicts or alcoholics;
• the child starts resisting seeing one of the parents for whatever reason including alienation;

To show a material change, you need to show a change that was not contemplated at the time you made your consent Order. To learn more, click here.

Changing a Consent Order on Spousal Support

This part is extremely tough to do. That’s because when two adults agree on an amount of spousal support, they want that agreement to be final. They do not want to revisit it and they want to arrange their lives around the agreement. Court are extremely hesitant to change spousal support agreements or orders. There are two circumstances for changing a spousal support agreement or court order:

• Vary a spousal support agreement up to two years after the agreement  or before a consent order is made: this is easier to do than when you enter into a consent order and wait a few years to change it again. In this situation, the court will look at the spousal support objectives under the Divorce Act and may change spousal support if it doesn’t mean the objectives to this Act. Again, hard and complicated to do. You must talk to a BC family lawyer to learn about your chances or success and strategy;

• Vary a spousal support order after it is made and after spousal support is paid: This is what we did in our latest court win. It is almost impossible to do. You must again show a material change in circumstances which was not contemplated at the time the order was made. And you must show that you are suffering hardship because of that change. Very complicated area of family law and not appropriate for this blog. But you can read our latest court win on this subject which made our client receive another $225,000 in spousal support in addition to the original $440,000 and retroactive spousal support, 12 years after separation and 5 years after the consent Order.

Changing a Consent Order on Property or Debt Division

Even harder than the above, this one is almost impossible to do. It is within the discretion of the judge what to do but you won’t win unless there is some catastrophic event that happens after the consent Order which would cause a great injustice to you. Examples? I don’t have many because it is almost never ordered. You may have a very rare case that allows for it and if you do, you will probably set precedent in BC.

To learn more about changing final consent Orders, contact our award winning family lawyers who will tell you your chances of success and the best strategy to win.