The person who receives child support or spousal support.

A province, state or country that has an agreement with Nova Scotia to enforce a Nova Scotia court order when the person paying support lives in that province, state or country and the person receiving support lives in Nova Scotia

An attempt by spouses to get back together.

A print-out from the Maintenance Enforcement Program (MEP) that shows the dates when support payments were made, and how much the payments were

A formal legal relationship that is registered with the government. This type of relationship allows a couple who are not married to have some of the rights and obligations that married couples have, like pension benefits or the ability to divide property or other assets at separation or death, without being married. This type of relationship generally gives the couple more rights than a common-law relationship, but does not have all of the rights of a marriage.

See ‘Separation agreement’

The type of order requested by you or the other party, for example, the type of parenting arrangements, or how much child or spousal support is being asked for.

A change in the place of residence of a parent, a child, or a parent and child is called a ‘relocation’ when the move could reasonably be expected to substantially impact the child’s relationship with a parent, guardian, or person with contact time. Decisions about relocation will always be based on what is in the best interests of the child. 

Please see the section on moving a child's residence, here.  

The person against whom an application or a Petition for Divorce has been started.

A court document used when responding to an application, often to add on an issue that was not pleaded (‘checked-off’) by the Applicant.

An application where the relief being requested is back-dated