Check out www.CANLII.ORG.for actual cases and search out some Ontario cases unde the keywords spousal support...and/or divorce granted.

The way I understand it the divorce can be granted...as long as you meet the criteria...of being separated for more than a year..and no chance of re-uniting...etc.. She can stall with BS maybe....

Oh there's another thing a Proposed Federal Spousal Support Guidelines that came into being in Jan 1 06... It's not law..but many courts are using it as a guildeline for SS already....at least in Nova Scotia....

It's a lot of legal jargon.....but you may want to sort through it..when you have time

"SPOUSAL SUPPORT GUIDELINES

The Department of Justice has finally published Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (called “A Draft Proposal”). Below is the briefest summary of the 139 pages, basically setting out what the Guidelines are. If you want to see the entire text, go to http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/dept/pub/spousal/project/index.html. The authors are two well known academics. There was apparently input from a variety of sources. There are various chapters with subheadings, all set out in the index. There is an appendix with case law references and a helpful glossary of terms (P. 119-125 PDF). I recommend a brief review of the glossary before tackling the body of the paper to help better understand some of the terms used (which are familiar to lawyers but not necessarily to the public). Note that anything inside [ . . . ] represent my comments, not something noted in the Guidelines.

This proposal is a very significant step in trying to bring some consistency to spousal support in similar circumstances. The authors invite comments The paper has much discussion of legal principles. A word of caution: I am not certain the summaries of the law are always correct; some of them may be wishful thinking; or over generalization; or an attempt to influence the law through publication of the commentary. The authors, as noted, are well respected family law academics.

These Guidelines are advisory only; their use is completely voluntary; they are not binding on the courts, although no doubt the expectation is courts will follow them to bring similarity of results in similar circumstances (and with the quantity of family law cases, no doubt there will be a tendency to use formulas whenever possible to reduce the time it takes to make decisions). The Guidelines do not deal with the ENTITLEMENT issue (see in a separate section below, Eligibility for Support); nor the effect of prior agreements or prior support orders. No doubt there will be some review of the practicality and use of the Guidelines within a year or two. If you have a lawyer, you can ask the lawyer whether they seem to be used consistently by the courts in your area.

The Guidelines give a range of spousal support amounts and the time over which the amounts are payable. The difference between the highest and lowest amounts or times can be quite large. Generally, the courts have developed some criteria for determining whether the amount or duration is in the upper, middle or lower ranges. E.g. spousal support could be longer and larger for a separating couple married significantly longer than another separating couple in similar financial circumstances.

It appears since the Guidelines were published that the Courts are certainly interested in knowing what the Guideline results are in cases before them; but should the Courts not think the results appropriate according to their views, then the Guidelines are not followed. When lawyers are negotiating spousal support, the Guideline amounts are usually referred to; and often, where the range suggested appears to agree with what the lawyers view the appropriate range is, there can be an agreement somewhere in the middle of the range.

While the Guidelines are technically intended to cover Divorce Act situations (i.e., married couples who have separated and are divorcing), they will no doubt be applied to unmarried couples who are separating, and married couples who are separating but not in the process of divorcing (i.e., have not started divorce proceedings, but rather some other proceedings in which spousal support is requested). Divorcing spouses are governed by the Divorce Act, which is federal (Canada wide) legislation, while the other situations are governed by provincial laws, which are somewhat different, although results under the differing legislation, absent some technicalities, are usually the same.

The Guidelines are broken down into two distinct situations: spousal support between spouses without dependant children; and spousal support between spouses who have dependent children (according to the legislation governing the definition of dependents). The formulae are quite different for each.

GUIDELINES FOR SPOUSAL SUPPORT BETWEEN SPOUSES WITHOUT DEPENDENT CHILDREN (P.35-63 PDF)

The amount of spousal support is 1.5% to 2% of the difference between the spouses' gross annual incomes for each year of living together up to a maximum of 50%. For cohabitation of 25 years or more, the split of gross annual incomes is between 37.5 / 62.5 % and 50 / 50%.

The duration of spousal support is .5 to 1 year of support for each year of marriage, with duration becoming indefinite after 20 years, or where the years of living together plus the age of the recipient is at least 65.

There is a floor below which the Guidelines do not apply, namely a gross income of less than $20,000; and a ceiling of above $350,000, to which they do not apply as well.

The formulae can be restructured to increase the monthly amount, decreasing the duration to lead to the same total amount over time; or the reverse; or a lump sum can be computed simply taking the monthly amount over the duration to get the total. [If a lump sum is used, no doubt the tax effects of monthly spousal support paid by written agreement or court order (taxable to the recipient and tax deductible to the payer) will have to be taken into account. Lump sum support payments are neither tax deductible nor taxable. For the more exacting, an actuary might be retained to figure out the present value of a lump sum paid immediately, as opposed to payments spread out over time]

AN EXAMPLE

Using as an example a couple who have been married for 10 years, no children, and one has an a gross annual income of $65,000 and the other of $25,000:

To determine the amount of support determine the gross income difference between the parties:
$65,000 –– $25,000 = $40,000: The applicable percentage is obtained by multiplying the length of the marriage by 1.5 to 2 by 10 years, which gives you a range of 15% to 20%. Applying these percentages to the $40,000 difference, the range of annual support is from $6,000($500 a month) to $8,000 ($667 per month).

To determine the duration of support multiply the years of living together by between .5 to 1. As the marriage was 10 years, the length of support can be anywhere from 5 to 10 years.

The total taxable/tax deductible support is thus anywhere from $30,000 to $80,000, depending on the annual amount paid and the years of duration used. [Obviously a considerable range requiring negotiation]

The factors that will determine which amount for what length of time are varied, such as ages at the time of separation, the compensatory element of support (see Entitlement below), family debt loads, the property settlement, , self-sufficiency incentives, cost of earning a living, and others. For more (but not a complete) discussion of this issue see the Guidelines (p. 53-54. PDF).

SPOUSAL SUPPORT WHEN THERE ARE DEPENDENT CHILDREN (P. 65-84 PDF)

This is a much more complex and variable formula, much different from spousal support without dependents. The authors acknowledge that a computer program will likely be required to calculate support in this circumstance. [Not a user friendly formula, with only a few software programs that lawyers, mediators and judges use, available. In effect, members of the public, will, if they wish to use the program, need to hire a lawyer or mediator to calculate the spousal support, or buy the program from a supplier, not a bad idea if this is going to be an ongoing issue for some time e.g. Where there are young children]

Under the basic formula spousal support is an amount that will leave the recipient with between 40% and 46% of the spousals’ net disposable incomes (NDI) after child support has been taken out. The duration is more complex and flexible than the without child support calculation and relies on both the length of living together and post separation child rearing (i.e. Before the end of high school ).

The basic formula is calculated as follows:

1. Determine the parents’ incomes for calculation purposes as follows:

Payor = the individual NDI (Guideline income) minus child support minus taxes and deductions;
. Recipient = the NDI minus notional guideline child support (what the recipient would pay if the children were with the other parent at 60% of the time), minus taxes and deductions plus Government benefits and Credits; then

2 Add together the individual NDIs. Determine the range of spousal support amounts that would be required to leave the lower income recipient spouse with between 40 and 46 percent of the combined NDIs.

3. Note, that if the custodial parent has to pay spousal support, the formula is different.

AN EXAMPLE

Because of the complexity of figuring out various government benefits and individual deductions, I am not providing an example except to indicate that if the payor had an income of $80,000 and the recipient of $20,000, the marriage lasted 11 years and there were 2 children under 18, if spousal support was at the top end of the range, the payor would have $2,906 to live on and the recipient $3,792 to live on (a 43.4 / 56.6 split of NDI); at the bottom of the range the payor would have $3283 and the recipient would have $3,505 (a 48.4/51.6 split of NDI). [This assumes the recipient also has the children 60% or more of the time as that is meant under the Guidelines]. The fewer the children, the more spousal support is payable; the greater the number of children, the less spousal support is payable. Where parents share custody (i.e. neither parent is responsible for more than 59% of the time) or split custody where there are at least 2 children (each parent having at least one child for more than 60% of the time), the formula is more complex. (P. 78-83 PDF)

As for duration in longer marriages, if the length of cohabitation exceeds the number of years left for the youngest child to finish high school, the maximum duration is based on the “without child” formula see above). There is no minimum duration here. Where the length of cohabitation is less than the number of years left for the youngest child to finish high school, the maximum duration would be when the youngest child finished high school. There would be review periods depending on the ages of the children.

The concept of ceilings and floors to spousal support is found in the Guidelines (P. 85-96 PDF). How the formulae work when reviews occur, or circumstances change justifying changes to support (e.g. Loss of employment, increase in incomes, remarriage, second families etc.), is also discussed in the Guidelines (p. 97-105 PDF)"

I don't think that i can survive if i have that kind of partner. I think it is unacceptable for me. - Texas Lending