Practices: Family
Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP’s Family Practice assists clients with all of the legal ramifications that accompany the breakdown of a marriage or relationship. As well, we provide our clients with advice and assistance with respect to agreements that preserve their business and personal assets, should their marriages or common-law relationships falter.
We emphasize an approach to family law matters that mixes equal amounts of resourcefulness and common sense. We frequently resolve family matters through direct negotiation or alternate dispute resolution in order to maximize results and minimize disruptions and costs for our clients. Where appropriate, we will proceed to court.
Services we frequently provide to our family law clients include the following:
We advise clients and assist them in obtaining divorce settlements and in resolving the accompanying property division and spousal support issues. The law governing spousal support has been evolving rapidly. Changes to B.C.’s Family Relations Act in recent years, and an increased willingness on the part of the courts to subject cohabitation or separation agreements to review and variation, mean that clients require sound advice in this area in order to protect their interests.
Business holdings are frequently among the key assets subject to division in a divorce proceeding. Essential to the process is an accurate valuation of the business in order to provide the foundation for an appropriate disposition. We work with the appropriate professionals to ensure that our clients' business holdings are valuated properly for the purpose of dividing assets.
We advise on and structure prenuptial agreements in order to allow our clients to maintain their premarital assets, and to better facilitate the implementation of the parties’ intentions, should the marriage subsequently fail.
After a marriage has dissolved, the ability to relocate to another city, province, or country with a child of the marriage is an issue that often arises. We ensure that our clients’ rights to mobility and access are considered and preserved.
Family trust assets can be put at risk in a divorce proceeding. We act to protect and preserve family trust assets in the event of marital breakdown, and we defend challenges to family trusts.
We have assisted parents with the adoption of children, and step-parents with the adoption of their partners’ children.
Jo Ann Carmichael*, Q.C.
Direct Line: 604.484.1771 
2700-700 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC CANADA V7Y 1B8 Switchboard: 604 484 1700 General fax line: 604 484 9700
Toll free: 877 688 1351
