On July 19, 2010, the BC Attorney General released a white paper
containing draft legislation and policy proposals to significantly amend legislation in BC related to family law.

The suggested changes include the following:

- Enabling parenting coordination by agreement or court order;
- Amending the Commercial Arbitration Act to address family arbitrations;
- integrating reproductive technologies into determining a child’s legal parents;
- Replacing the terms “custody” and “access” with “guardianship” and “parenting time”;
- Defining “guardianship” through a list of “parental responsibilities” that can be allocated to allow for more customized parenting arrangements;
- Extending the legislative property division regime to common-law spouses who have lived together for two years in a marriage-like relationship or who are in marriage-like relationship of some permanence and have children together;
- Excluding certain types of property (e.g. pre-relationship property, gifts, and inheritances) from the pool of family property to be divided 50-50; and
- Providing that debts are subject to equal division.

Commentators have until October 8, 2010 to give feedback on the proposed legislation at www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation.

Nicole Garton-Jones is a lawyer and mediator and focuses on mediating wills, estates, elder and family law matters. Nicole is the managing partner of Heritage Law, which is regularly featured in the media about its use of technology and innovative approach to the practice of law. Nicole can also be found at http://twitter.com/NGartonJones
[click on the author's name for more information]

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