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Marriage Contract Precedent

by S. Christine Montgomery

DIVORCEmate Software Inc. has recently released its latest product - the Marriage Contract precedent for Ontario and the Marriage Agreement precedent for British Columbia. The Marriage Contract/Agreement was created after almost two years of careful and thorough research and development. Numerous precedents offered by clientele and CLE programs provided the starting basis for the project, and were then significantly reworked, revamped and reorganized in accordance with the most current caselaw, legislation, guidelines, continuing legal education programs, articles etc. The result is an extensive and cohesive contract that can handle a wide variety of scenarios, from the most straightforward exclusion of a single asset to the more complex situations including residences brought into the marriage, corporate and trust assets, spousal support, prior children, life insurance and so on. Click here to see a complete list of all clauses available.

The Marriage Contract/Agreement precedent has been specifically designed to help facilitate clarity, consistency and cohesion as much as possible. One such design feature is the consistent and defined use of certain terms throughout the Agreement. Another example is the use of the word “alternate” before a clause where there are several different choices for the same item, but where only one choice should be made (otherwise the clauses would conflict). For example, when selecting the appropriate property regime to apply on a breakdown of the relationship, the choices are set out as follows:

	Property Regime (at date of breakdown of the relationship) Unaffected
	Alternate – Waive Current Property Regime (ie. Separate as to Property/No Net Family Property)
	Alternate – Maintain Current Property Regime (ie. Part I of the FLA at date of Agreement)
	Alternate – Current Property Regime with Modification of Excluded Property

Ultimately, however, the user must ensure that all clauses are consistent and make sense.

The Marriage Contract/Agreement precedent is easy to use, and works the same way as DIVORCEmate’s Separation Agreement precedent. The user simply clicks on the DIVORCEmate icon on the desktop, selects the appropriate client file, existing (ie.edit) or new, and then goes directly to the “Marriage Contract” Tab (or “Marriage Agreement” Tab in BC) to input the information requested. (Note: it is not necessary, nor advisable, to complete any of the other tabs for the Marriage Contract/Agreement.) Moving to the “Work” files in the lower half of the screen, the user clicks on the “Precedents” Tab, highlights the Ontario Marriage Contract or BC Marriage Agreement from the list of precedents and clicks the “Begin” button. The user then selects the clauses to be included in the Marriage Contract/Agreement, expanding the category folders as necessary.

There is relevant and helpful commentary for each clause in order to assist in the clause selection. A “Document Preview” tab enables the user to see the draft agreement based on the clauses selected prior to preparing the final document. Once all of the relevant clauses have been selected, the user “creates” the actual Marriage Contract/Agreement in Microsoft Word or Corel Wordperfect. The final version is then completed by tabbing through the shaded areas to fill in the missing details, inserting missed clauses, revising existing clauses as need be, adding new clauses, and updating cross references, with the help of the DIVORCEmate toolbar at the top of the screen.

Just as with the Separation Agreement, the user can also create custom Marriage Contract/Agreement precedents: the user simply selects the specific clauses necessary for the particular situation, saves the list of clauses as a template using the “Save As Template” button at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, and then applies those saved clauses (ie. “Load Template”) to any client file. For example, the user could create a basic Marriage Contract/Agreement precedent solely for the exclusion of assets. The particular assets of the individual clients would be specified later once the contract has been created.) Or a Marriage Contract/Agreement precedent could be created addressing only the treatment of a property (ie. Ontario matrimonial home or BC family residence) brought into the marriage. By taking the time initially to set up a number of custom precedents to handle the most commonly encountered fact situations in marriage contracts/agreements, a lot of time and energy could be saved.