Maintenance and support - Child support - Variation or termination of obligation - Practice and procedure - Orders - Enforcement of orders - Reduction or rescission of arrears

K.P.B. v. A.S.R. - [2016] B.C.J. No. 1971, - British Columbia Court of Appeal, - A.W. MacKenzie, D.C. Harris and J.E.D. Savage JJ.A., - September 16, 2016. - Digest No. 3623-007

Law360 Canada ( October 20, 2016, 8:00 PM EDT) -- Appeal by the father from an order dismissing his application to vary child support obligations and refusing his application to cancel child support arrears. The parties married in December 2000 and separated in February 2011. They had three children, ages 11, nine and seven, who resided primarily with the mother. In May 2011, the father was ordered to pay interim child support based on his guideline income of $67,000. The father was a trained and qualified chemist. His most recent employment ended in October 2011 and he had not worked since then. After his employment ended, the father initially paid support at a reduced rate, but eventually stopped paying entirely. In 2014, a trial judge imputed income to the father and ordered him to pay child support of $998 and $300 for the children’s extraordinary expenses per month as of January 2015. In August 2015, the father brought an application to vary the child support order and to cancel or reduce the arrears. He claimed that he had made extensive unsuccessful efforts to find employment and had no ability to pay child support until he found employment. The application judge concluded that there was no change of circumstances from the trial judgment and therefore refused to vary the order. He found that the father had not shown why he was still unable to find employment. He further found that it would not be grossly unfair not to reduce or cancel the arrears. The father appealed, arguing that the judge erred in not finding a material change in circumstances, erred in concluding that the child support arrears were not grossly unjust and was biased against him....

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