LEGAL REPORT: FAMILY LAW
A LIT TLE L ESS CHAOS
Not everyone thinks the new spousal support guidelines are perfect, but they do go a long way to eliminating wildly different decisions on awards. BY GLENN KAUTH
aren Kear-Jodoin has a standard blurb she tells divorce clients about their prospects for getting spousal support from the court. "On a good day, you may receive 40 per cent [of gross income] and on a bad day
you may receive 15 per cent," says the Montreal family lawyer. "It depends on the judge. There has to be a better way." For some lawyers and judges, that better way is the Spousal Support Ad-
visory Guidelines, which this summer authors Carol Rogerson and Rollie Thompson finalized following the release of a draſt report in 2005. In es- sence, the guidelines boil down spousal support decisions in typical cases to
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ILLUSTRATION: JOE WEISSMANN
