SUPREME COURT OF NOVA SCOTIA
(Family Division)
Citation: Blackburn v. Pace, 2013 NSSC 201
Date: 20130626
Docket: SFHF 012802
Registry: Halifax
Between:
Theresa Michelle Elizabeth Blackburn
Applicants
and
Andrew David Pace, Melissa Pace
Respondent
LIBRARY HEADING
Judge: The Honourable Associate Chief Justice Lawrence I. O’Neil
Hearing: May 17th, 2013 (a Binding Settlement Conference)
Issues: Whether the parties’ shared parenting arrangement will result in the payor parent paying less than the table amount of child support.
Summary: The Court found, after applying the Contino analysis, that the full table amount of child support should continue to be paid. The payee parent was unable to work because of a disability and the payor parent was earning more than $50,000 per year. The shared parenting arrangement did not significantly reduce the payee parent’s cost of raising the parties’ child and it was important that the standard of living in her home not be negatively impacted by a reduction of child support. The Court’s ruling follows a Binding Settlement Conference in which the parties agreed upon a shared parenting arrangement but were unable to agree on whether that new arrangement would result in a reduction of child support.
Keywords: Shared parenting; child support
Legislation: Maintenance and Custody Act, R.S.N.S. 1989 c.160
Child Maintenance Guidelines, N.S. Reg 53/98
Child Support Guidelines, SOR./97-175
Cases Considered: Contino v. Leonelli‑Contino, 2005 SCC 63
THIS INFORMATION SHEET DOES NOT FORM PART OF THE COURT'S DECISION. QUOTES MUST BE FROM THE DECISION, NOT THIS LIBRARY SHEET.