Contact Us
705-217-2126
Contact Us
705-217-2126

Focused Guidance For Your Family Law Issues

Family law matters can feel overwhelming, emotional, and uncertain. Our team provides practical legal guidance with a clear strategy, helping individuals and families navigate divorce, parenting disputes, support matters, mediation, and separation agreements.

Book a Consultation
Meet Our Lawyers
Murphy Family logo

Trusted guidance through family law matters and major life changes.

We’ve chosen to focus on family law because we know how vital it is to our clients’ well-being. Leveraging our experience, team and reputation, we provide you with a plan and step-by-step guidance for solving your family law issues fairly and practically.

We’re client focused.

We understand that resolving your case is the most important thing in your life. Your choice of our firm to help you is an honour that we’ll strive to recognize with excellence and clarity in our advice, service delivery, and results.

We’re problem solvers.

Our job is to help you preserve as much of your wealth, health and relationships as possible. We are strategic and we have a plan for each case. We fight when we have to and we fight to win. But our goal is always to end the conflict, never prolong it.

We’re team oriented.

We are a coordinated group of experienced professionals supporting you and supporting each other to successfully resolve each case. Each team member knows what the others are doing at any given time to support your goals and advance your case towards a conclusion.

Our Reputation works for you.

We’ve built a strong reputation for integrity and quality legal work over years of practice. We handle complex family law matters with professionalism, civility, and care because these values help achieve better outcomes for our clients.

Family Law Practice Areas

01Parenting

Creating a parenting plan after separation ensures your child’s best interests remain the top priority. We help parents navigate complex issues, including shared parenting schedules, decision-making authority, and cases involving allegations of parental wrongdoing or children with special needs. Our goal is to build stable, workable parenting solutions tailored to your family.

Learn More

Determining child and spousal support requires careful consideration of income, family needs, and future stability. We assist in calculating fair support amounts, planning for special expenses, and enforcing payment obligations through the Family Responsibility Office. For spousal support, we help assess entitlement, duration, and the best payment structure for both parties.

Learn More
Dividing property during separation involves emotional and financial complexity, especially when dealing with homes, cottages, farms, or family businesses. We guide you through legal entitlements, valuation, and negotiations to achieve fair division and lasting resolution. Our team works with financial experts to protect your interests and finalize equitable settlements.
Learn More
If negotiation fails or is not an option, family court may be necessary to protect your rights and secure a fair outcome. We have appeared at all levels of court, advocating strongly for clients. We never go to court lightly and we always go with a plan for advancing your interests and resolving the file as quickly as possible.
Learn More
Cohabitation and marriage contracts are essential when you bring property, financial obligations, or children from a previous relationship into a new one. These binding agreements protect assets, clarify expectations, and reduce the possibility of disputes in the event of separation.
Learn More
Separation can significantly impact your retirement plans. We provide clear guidance on how to value and divide assets such as pensions, RRSPs and non-registered investments. We can also help you explore alternatives to pension sharing and adapt your retirement strategy to account for the life changes that separation brings.
Learn More

In mediation a neutral third party helps separating couples resolve family law issues. We can act as your mediator or represent you during mediation, ensuring your rights and interests are clearly understood and protected.

Learn More

In Collaborative Family Law, separated couples sign an agreement to avoid court, negotiate in good faith and work with a team of trained professionals to reach resolution of their family law issues. This team-based process promotes open communication and interest-based settlements.

 

Learn More

Arbitration is a private, efficient alternative to court where a neutral third party makes binding decisions on family law disputes. Ideal for complex or sensitive matters, arbitration offers confidentiality and faster resolution. We help select the right arbitrator and present your case clearly and persuasively.

Learn More
Book a Consultation

Meet the Murphy Family Law Team

Jason Murphy

Lawyer

Aalia Ladak

Associate

Jen MacKinnon-Barry

Law Clerk

Breanna Pimenta

Articling Student

Janine Murphy

Office Manager

What customers are saying about us

Read More Reviews
Review stars
“I never felt alone or helpless or overwhelmed. A ‘thank you’ will never be enough.”
From our initial meeting you took my hand, and you never once let it go. Your guidance and intuition were spot on, and I believe you are a master at avoiding the adversarial snares that the other side laid in our path. Rather, you continued to push in a firm manner for a collaborative approach. I was continually kept in the loop as to what was happening and what needed doing next.
Review stars
“I never felt alone or helpless or overwhelmed. A ‘thank you’ will never be enough.”
From our initial meeting you took my hand, and you never once let it go. Your guidance and intuition were spot on, and I believe you are a master at avoiding the adversarial snares that the other side laid in our path. Rather, you continued to push in a firm manner for a collaborative approach. I was continually kept in the loop as to what was happening and what needed doing next.
Review stars
“I never felt alone or helpless or overwhelmed. A ‘thank you’ will never be enough.”
From our initial meeting you took my hand, and you never once let it go. Your guidance and intuition were spot on, and I believe you are a master at avoiding the adversarial snares that the other side laid in our path. Rather, you continued to push in a firm manner for a collaborative approach. I was continually kept in the loop as to what was happening and what needed doing next.
Review stars
“I never felt alone or helpless or overwhelmed. A ‘thank you’ will never be enough.”
From our initial meeting you took my hand, and you never once let it go. Your guidance and intuition were spot on, and I believe you are a master at avoiding the adversarial snares that the other side laid in our path. Rather, you continued to push in a firm manner for a collaborative approach. I was continually kept in the loop as to what was happening and what needed doing next.

Focused Legal Support When You Need It Most

Book a Consultation

Practical Guidance for Families

Why Every Happy Couple Should Have A “Pre-Nup”

Marriage contracts and cohabitation agreements (or “pre-nups”, as they are commonly called) may be the last thing you want to discuss with your loved one while picking out wedding rings or purchasing a home. But they may also be the smartest bit of planning you can do before tying the knot or sharing a roof. Done properly these agreements can...

Can Spouses be Sued for Assault

Spousal abuse, including physical violence, psychological abuse, financial abuse and intimidation, is a pervasive problem in Canada. Statistics Canada reports that nearly half of all women and a third of all men have experienced abusive conduct in a domestic relationship. While “cruelty” has long been a grounds for divorce between married couples, the award of monetary damages for spousal abuse...

Occupation Rent

It happens frequently – after separation, one partner leaves a home in which they have an ownership interest. They may have believed that the home would be sold quickly. They may have been forced to leave because of a criminal charge. Or they may have left voluntarily to decrease tension in the home. Whatever the reason, it soon becomes obvious...

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens at a first consultation?

One of the most stressful parts of separating is the lack of knowledge about how separation works. Clients often attend the first consultation anxious, scared and with many questions about parenting, support, their homes, pensions and businesses. The goal of the first consultation is to help you understand:

  • the key issues that relate to your separation; 
  • the information that you’ll need to address those issues; 
  • the best process to reach a settlement on your file; and 
  • the people who will help guide you through the process. 

You should leave the consultation feeling more empowered and feeling that you have a plan to handle your separation.

The more organized and knowledgeable that you are about your finances, the more we can achieve at the first consultation. To assist you, we have a questionnaire that we will ask you to complete before coming in. It’s very helpful for organizing your thoughts and information, which can help get us all off to a strong start.

If you can’t complete the entire questionnaire, we’ll get some preliminary information from you at the consultation itself. The most helpful data is information about your income over the last few years, your main assets and debts, and any information about your children’s special needs or the involvement of the police or the Children’s Aid Society in your family’s life.

Importantly: don’t let a lack of paperwork stop you from getting legal advice. If you can’t or don’t have time to organize your financial information, just tell us.  We are here to help.

Our consultation fee is a flat rate of $800 plus HST. This covers the lawyer preparation for the meeting and about an hour and 15 minutes of meeting time.

A retainer agreement is a written contract entered into between a lawyer and a client that sets out the services the lawyer will provide, the way that the client and lawyer will interact, the lawyer’s fees and payment terms and other associated information.

There are few downsides to trying mediation. Mediation is usually “closed”, meaning that what is discussed in the mediation session is confidential and cannot be referred to in any future court proceeding or arbitration. If your mediation is unsuccessful, you can therefore move on with other efforts at resolution such as continued negotiation, court or arbitration.

Still, mediation does take up time, effort and money. Picking the right moment to start it is important. You want your case to have the best chance at resolving in a mediation before you proceed with one. We’ll work with you to ensure the conditions are right to get a successful mediated outcome.

View More FAQs
Scroll to Top