by Shirley Levitan | Mar 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
Badmouthing your ex is a bad strategy for all kinds of reasons: very stressful on your children, hurts your chances of settling out of court, and frankly, it hurts with the judges if you end up in court. An extreme, spectacular illustration of this principle may be...
by Shirley Levitan | Jan 20, 2020 | Uncategorized
Sometimes the law seems cruel. A good example is a recent case where a wife lost her fight to use sperm from her dead husband. The couple already had one young child, and by all accounts they both wanted more. However, the husband died “suddenly and...
by Shirley Levitan | Dec 13, 2019 | Uncategorized
Jessica used her eggs, and Timothy used his sperm, to create embryos. One of them was implanted into Jessica, and a child resulted. The remaining embryos were frozen. Then the couple divorced. They had signed a contract saying that if they divorced, the remaining...
by Shirley Levitan | Nov 28, 2019 | Fertility Law, Financial
Fertility benefits have become a way for companies to recruit and retain talent, especially female and LGBTQ employees. A recent BBC story talks about the San Francisco “internet of things” firm Samsara and their decision to offer such benefits, including...
by Shirley Levitan | Oct 17, 2019 | Uncategorized
If you want to make sure there is estate litigation by your ex after you pass away, here are two excellent methods: 1. Get life insurance for, say, $1 million, which would cover your spousal support obligations in the event of your demise, but do not state in your...
by Shirley Levitan | Aug 17, 2019 | Blog, Fertility Law
A woman wanted to thaw out a frozen embryo and create a second child, against the wishes of her ex-husband. The lower court allowed it, but the Ontario Court of Appeal had a very different view: not only would this run afoul of federal regulations, it would be a...
by Shirley Levitan | Jul 16, 2019 | Blog, Fertility Law
On June 26, 2019 Health Canada released a draft Guidance Document with long-awaited regulations on what expenses a surrogate may be reimbursed for. Scheduled to come into force June 9, 2020, they will be likely be welcome news for those practising in the fertility...
by Shirley Levitan | May 11, 2019 | Blog, Fertility Law
The only thing worse than forcing a man to become a father is not forcing him to become a father. “Shotgun fatherhood” may seem absurd, but it’s more sensible than it sounds – after all, this legal principle only applies in situations where there are...
by Shirley Levitan | Apr 5, 2019 | Blog, Family Law
Some people are “all wrong” about money. They think, for example, that if they pay out $500 for some unexpected expense, and it turns out to be unnecessary and they get the money back, then they’ve profited by $500. Therefore they can go ahead and blow it...
by Shirley Levitan | Mar 21, 2019 | Blog, Fertility Law
Showing one’s daughter a picture of daddy, who died before she was born – years before – may seem like a scene from a sci-fi romantic comedy, but it actually happens in real life. A recent article in the Atlantic tells the story of Ms. Liat Malka of Ashkelon, Israel,...
