Paula DeVeto

Following a family law trial regarding parenting time and decision-making responsibility, the parties were unable to agree on costs.

The applicant sought $72,500 in costs, while the respondent argued each party should bear their own costs due to divided success.

The court found that while success was divided, the applicant was the more successful party on the primary issue of parenting time.

After considering the parties' offers to settle, unreasonable behaviour by the respondent, and making deductions for excessive or unsubstantiated docket entries, the court ordered the respondent to pay $27,000 in costs to the applicant.

The mother brought a motion to change a final parenting order, seeking primary care of the parties' daughter (C2) after C2 exhibited extreme resistance to the week-about parenting schedule.

The father sought to enforce the shared parenting order and requested sole decision-making responsibility.

The court found a material change in circumstances regarding C2 due to her resistance, which was exacerbated by the mother's overprotectiveness, failure to exercise parental authority, and lingering anger toward the father.

The court ordered a gradual return to a shared parenting schedule for C2 and temporarily suspended the mother's right to make medical and extracurricular decisions due to her unilateral decision-making.