What is the proper treatment of an existing agreement when a court is arriving at an initial order for spousal support?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Stevens v. Stevens, 2013 BCSC 1899 (CanLII):
Miglin v. Miglin, 2003 SCC 24, described the proper treatment of an existing agreement when a court is arriving at an initial order for spousal support. At stage one of the inquiry, the court must consider the agreement and determine whether there is any reason to discount it, either because the circumstances of its creation were unfair in some way, or because its content does not reflect the objectives of s. 15.2 (paras. 80-86). If the agreement is not discounted on one of these bases, then at stage two of the inquiry the court considers whether the agreement still corresponds to the parties’ original intentions and relative positions, and to the objectives of the Divorce Act (paras. 87-90).
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