What is the test for deference to a trial judge in a family law case?

Ontario, Canada


The following excerpt is from Rados v. Rados, 2019 ONCA 627 (CanLII):

Substantial deference is owed to the trial judge’s determinations of fact and mixed fact and law, especially in family law cases. This court will interfere “only where the fact-related aspects of the judge’s decision in a family law case exceeds a generous ambit within which reasonable disagreement is possible and is plainly wrong”: Johanson v. Hinde, 2016 ONCA 430, at para. 1.

The trial judge correctly considered the applicable law. The case law relied on by the trial judge is consistent with this court’s guidance in Zavarella v. Zavarella, 2013 ONCA 720, 117 O.R. (3d) 641, at para. 40, that the debt is to be valued based on the reasonable likelihood that it will ever be repaid.

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