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formula for couples with dependent chil- dren since the issues are fairly standard. "There's a lot of homogeneity in cases with kids because kids demand care," says Thompson. "That formula works quite well for a wide range of cases." In the end, the authors settled on a formula that awards the custodial parent between 40 and 46 per cent of the cou- ple's combined disposable income. But the question of how long that support should last was tricky. In marriages that were neither long or short, for example, questions of duration can be complicated by the fact that the children may be soon about to leave the home as they reach age 18. As a result, the issue becomes how long the recipient should continue to receive support at that point since the courts must also consider when a spouse can be reasonably expected to be self- sufficient. In one part of the country, Thompson notes, a tendency for couples to marry early added to the challenge since recipients would oſten be in their late 30s or early 40s when their kids leſt the home. That meant they still had time leſt to start or build a career. The final result was what the guide- lines authors call a "soſt" approach to duration for couples with dependent children. The guidelines do set potential time limits based on either the length of the marriage or the age of the children but, the authors emphasize, that range is meant to be a guideline for a review or a variation of a support order rather than a potential hard cap on payments. When a judge ultimately rules that sup- port should end depends on the par- ticular characteristics of the marriage, such as the degree to which the recipi- ent spouse has experienced an economic disadvantage due to the focus on raising the children. Nevertheless, Toronto family lawyer Llana Nakonechny worries the use of a formula is still a barrier to acknowl- edging the particular sacrifices that one partner — usually the woman — oſten makes during a marriage. "I think this is always the problem with a formula . . . it can't take into account some of the par- ticular roles played during the marriage, the reason for somebody's inability to get back into the workforce or choices that may have been made by the parties," says Nakonechny, who sits on the legal committee for the Women's Legal Edu- cation and Action Fund. "We know that women's aſter-tax financial circumstanc- es aſter marriage are so much less than men's, and they always have been." For Nakonechny, the issue of guide- lines is a catch-22. On the one hand, judges need discretion, but on the other, she says the guidelines have reduced the uncertainty that characterized spou- sal support rulings in Canada. "That's what led to the want for the guidelines because people said, 'This is all over the map. . . . We can't advise our clients, we don't know what to expect, we don't know what the judge is going to do. So, could we just have something that would help to avoid this lengthy fighting and litigation about numbers?'" Thompson, however, has a response Argosy_CL_Nov_08.indd 1 www. mag.com NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2008 57 10/23/08 12:31:21 PM