Ontario has a convoluted network of benefits, tax credits and investment tools accessible to adults with disabilities. It is therefore not surprising that the Family Bar Association continues to deal with child support issues for those who reach the age of majority but cannot withdraw from parental support due to disability. In his October 7, 2019 newsletter, Epstein`s This Week in Family Law3, the late Philip Epstein commented on the Kelly4 murders, a decision of Justice Catrina Braid of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. In that decision, Justice Braid addressed the support of a 25-year-old child born with severe cognitive and physiological impairments, including severe autism, cerebral palsy and significant developmental delay. At the end of his comment, Mr. Epstein said: “I was not aware of the passport funding program in Ontario and I suspect similar programs exist in most parts of Canada. This is an important program designed to help families with children with developmental problems. In these days of severe government cuts for the underprivileged, I can only hope that the passport funding program will continue. There is often a lack of information and understanding about the various funding options and programs available to families, as Shown by Mr. Epstein`s comments on passport funding. In fact, the case law that examines the issue of determining support for a disabled adult “child” continues to evolve.
However, the approach requires family lawyers and judges to consider the needs and resources of the child, including provincial and federal sources of income. 2 Stephanie Dickson, LL.B./B.C.L. is a senior partner at PooranLaw and practices in the areas of wills, trusts, estates, human rights, consent, legal capacity and decision-making, social benefits, disability tax appeals, microboards, and not-for-profit and charitable corporate governance. Melanie Battaglia, LL.B./M.A., is a partner at Battaglia Law and practices family law, education law, civil litigation, probate and guardianship. Special thanks to our employee, Zahra Attir, for her legal research and treatment. In their article Child Support for Adult Children and Children with a Disability: The Impact of ODSP, the Disability Tax Credit, RDSP and RESP1, Stephanie Dickson, Senior Partner at PooranLaw, and Melanie Battaglia2, Partner at Battaglia Law, explore the complexities of providing financial support to an adult “child” with a disability. 4 Murders against Kelly, 2019 ONSC 4620, 2019 CarswellOnt 14239 (Ont. S.C.J.), Additional Reasons 2019 CarswellOnt 16724 (Ont. S.C.J.) (Murders) Pubmed: pubmed.ncbi.nlm. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%220832-6983%22%5BJournal%5D&sort = 3 Epstein`s This Week in Family Law, Fam. L. Nws.
2019-40 (October 7, 2019). PooranLaw is honoured to be published in the March 2022 issue of the Canadian Family Law Quarterly. Another variant of the name: Quarterly Family Law Booklet Canada Wikidata: www.wikidata.or. www.wikidata.org/entity/Q27717062 1 This article was originally published for the Annual Six-Minute Family Law Lawyer program organized by the Law Society of Ontario. Google: www.google.com/. www.google.com/search?q=ISSN+%220832-6983%22. FATCAT: fatcat.wiki/con. fatcat.wiki/container/lw4vupjvpvemjd7sho47k3t7zu.
