In a recent Ontario case, the Court considered an application for child support where the parents shared equal parenting of two children. (Carroll v. Carroll, 2019 ONSC 2505) Despite finding that the parties had not provided sufficient information for the Court to make a reasoned decision, the judge decided to make a “temporary temporary” order, which he described as an order that could be varied, with no need to adduce a material change in circumstances.
The interesting part of this decision is the chambers judge’s remarks regarding the content of the parties’ affidavits. In dealing with costs, the Court decried the lengthy and mainly irrelevant contents of their respective affidavits, commenting that the practice of having clients prepare their own affidavits with counsel “simply having those versions type-written and put into affidavit form” was to be discouraged.
The Court also observed that an affidavit in support of an application should focus on the orders sought by the applicant and that “throwing in the kitchen sink” was not helpful. In this case, the parties’ affidavits contained lengthy evidence regarding custody matters, which had already been agreed and resolved.
Ellies J. said:
“None of this evidence was helpful to the court with respect to the issue of support. Indeed, much of it proved to be a waste of the court’s time.”