“In the recent decision of Stewart and Bernard v. Fuhgeh, 2020 ONSC 4850, Justice Shelston of this court made the following statement: “Family law litigants are responsible and accountable for the positions they take in the litigation.”
I agree. Subject to the rare exception, a party to a family law case must be held responsible for the costs of the decisions and position they take in that litigation. Responsibility for the positions taken are one thing, however. The time and resources the other party expends for which costs are claimed are another.
In Moon v. Sher, 2004 CanLII 39005 (Ont. C.A.), Borins J.A. wrote that where a lawyer expends four times the work to achieve a result than what might be seen as reasonable, that is between the lawyer and the client. However, it would not be reasonable to expect the unsuccessful party to pay those costs, nor would it be reasonable for that party to expect to pay (at para. 33).”