Prof. Anna Lund pens new article examining the impact of insolvency law on family law costs awards

University of Alberta Faculty of Law Associate Professor Anna Lund has authored an article looking at how insolvency proceedings, such as bankruptcy and consumer proposals, affect family litigation. 

“Family Law Costs Awards in Insolvency Proceedings” is published in the 19th edition of Annual Review of Insolvency Law. Since 2020, this journal is available for free to the public through the CanLII website. 

The article acknowledges that litigation arising from the breakdown of a relationship can lead to financial difficulties that result in insolvency proceedings. While insolvency proceedings can “provide needed debt relief,” Lund writes, “they can also create complexity” for individuals involved in  family law litigation. 

In her article, Lund specifically examines one such area of complexity: how a payor’s insolvency filing impacts a recipient’s ability to enforce a family law costs award, where one party is ordered to pay the other party an amount for legal fees. “Some portions of the court order will remain enforceable, and some will not,” she writes.

The article,  written for both consumer insolvency trustees and family lawyers, describes how a costs award is dealt with in insolvency proceedings and how family law courts currently apportion the costs. 

Lund concludes the article by suggesting a framework for how parties might approach apportioning a costs award: “Their already-depleted resources — of both time and energy — are not well spent re-litigating the consequences of the breakdown through the lens of insolvency law.”

She calls for legal reform to clarify the interaction between family law and insolvency law in order to lessen the impact on the individuals involved.