Family Law Blog

Separated parents often agree on the basic idea of child support but run into conflict when the extra bills arrive. Summer camp. Hockey registration. Tournament travel. Dance costumes. Private tutoring. Orthodontics. These costs can be substantial, and they are not always handled the same way as ordinary monthly child support.

If you're separating in Edmonton and expect to end up in front of a judge, the path into family court changed at the start of this year. On January 2, 2026, the Court of King's Bench of Alberta introduced the Family Focused Protocol, a new set of steps that most people must complete before a judge will hear a contested family law issue.

Many separating couples in Edmonton write a separation agreement between themselves — sometimes with a lawyer's help, sometimes at the kitchen table — and assume a signature is what makes it final. It isn't quite that simple.

Most people going through a separation in Edmonton can picture how the house gets sorted out. Far fewer feel confident about the assets that often matter more: a workplace pension built up over many years, an RRSP that has been growing quietly in the background, or a private company or professional practice one spouse built from nothing.

If you are separating in Edmonton, family mediation is no longer just one option among several. Since January 2, 2026, the Court of King's Bench of Alberta's new Family Focused Protocol has made an attempt at alternative dispute resolution part of the standard path through the family court system, alongside other pre-court steps.

If you're searching for information about "custody" in Edmonton right now, you haven't done anything wrong — it's still the word most people reach for. But if you've recently been to court, spoken with a lawyer, or read through a new order, you may have noticed the word isn't there anymore. Since March 1, 2021, Canada's federal Divorce Act has used different language: "parenting time" and "decision-making responsibility," combined into a single "parenting order."

A job loss can turn a workable spousal support order into a serious financial problem. In Alberta, layoffs, business downturns, reduced hours, health issues, and industry changes can all affect a person's ability to pay or need for support.

If you're separated or divorced in Edmonton and you already have a will, it's easy to assume the law has already "fixed" it for you — or that nothing changes until you get around to updating it yourself. Neither assumption is quite right, and which one applies depends on two specific facts: whether you're divorced or only separated, and whether you have a will at all.