DATE OF ENFORCEABILITY
The date of enforceability of a judgment is the date on which support becomes payable.
Where this date is determined in the judgment or agreement, it is that date that will be considered.
However, it very often happens that it is not specified in the judgment. In such a case, it will differ according to the type of judgment rendered.
Let us specify that judgments can be divided into two major categories.
JUDGMENTS UPON THE MERITS
These judgments specify that there is a LEGAL SEPARATION or DIVORCE, but sometimes these are temporary judgments (because no definitive judgment can be rendered at that time).These temporary judgments usually specify that the spouse will be required to reside outside the family residence and that he/she must pay support while awaiting the pronouncement of another judgment (legal separation or divorce). In these judgments, corollary relief is often settled: child custody, support, partition of family assets.
In this category, the judgment date will be retained.
OTHER JUDGMENTS
These judgments mostly suspend or cancel already fixed support or amend corollary relief. In the case of common-law spouses, judgments regard a child custody application and the fixing of support.
In this category, it is the date of the service of application that will be retained.
This date can be obtained from the creditor party. It is the date on which the creditor party received copy of the application. This date appears on the back of the application and the creditor may also obtain it from his/her lawyer.
In cases where it is impossible to obtain the date of the service of application, the date of the judgment will be considered. However, it may happen that the file is created with the date of the judgment and the date of the service of application is obtained later on; this will result in the support paid for the period covered between the date of the service of application and the date of the judgment becoming reimbursable support.
In the following table, you will find the list of the major types of judgments rendered as well as the date to consider for the commencement of the support:
|
TYPE OF JUDGMENT |
DATE OF ENFORCEABILITY |
|---|---|
|
Temporary judgment |
Date of judgment |
|
Decree of divorce or judicial separation or dissolution of the civil union |
Date of judgment |
|
Judgment on corollary relief rendered at the same time as the judgment upon the merits |
Date of judgment |
|
Suspension or cancellation judgment |
Date of the service of application |
|
Judgment on interim relief |
Date of the service of application |
|
Judgment on corollary relief rendered after the judgment upon the merits |
Date of the service of application |
|
Judgment pursuant to S. 585 C.C.Q. (e.g.: for children born from common-law spouses) |
Date of the service of application |
|
Judgement in modification on interim or corollary relief |
Date of the service of application |
|
Joint statement of dissolution of the civil union |
Date of the notarial deed |