Carol Crawford

The respondent mother brought a motion for interim child and spousal support.

The parties had a cohabitation agreement limiting child support to $1500 per month and waiving spousal support.

The court deferred the spousal support issue to trial but found the child support provision unreasonable under s. 56(1.1) of the Family Law Act given the father's high income and the mother's modest means.

The court imputed an income of $30,000 to the mother and ordered the father to pay $2500 per month in interim child support for their special needs child in a shared parenting arrangement.

The applicant sought costs on a full recovery basis totaling $55,927.42 for a case conference and two motions, alleging bad faith and unreasonable conduct by the respondent regarding jurisdiction and financial disclosure.

The court declined to make a finding of bad faith but awarded substantial indemnity costs for a motion where the respondent needlessly revived a jurisdiction issue.

Recognizing divided success on other issues, including retroactive support and parenting, the court fixed total costs payable by the respondent to the applicant at $24,712.05 for fees and $6,261.53 for disbursements, which included the reasonable expense of retaining an accounting expert.