Can an Urgent Motion Get Me My Equalization Payment in the Middle of the Case? Chinese-Speaking North York Divorce Lawyer Miao He

No. Equalization is calculated and paid at the very end of a case — a court won’t award half of it in the middle. If you are in genuine financial difficulty and can’t get by, you can ask for an advance for living expenses, but that advance is without prejudice: it is your expected share paid early, counted back in at the final accounting — not your equalization paid. What can be urgent is the children: if your spouse stops paying child support and you can’t support your children, that may be urgent. Your half of the property is not.

A client came to consult me after an urgent motion in her case had been dismissed. The matrimonial home had been sold, and her spouse had transferred the sale proceeds away. Her lawyer at the time had bundled three requests into one urgent motion: the sale proceeds, child support, and “her money” from her spouse. The court dismissed the whole thing. She couldn’t understand why, and came to ask me.

The short answer: equalization can’t be collected partway through a case, and an urgent motion won’t change that.

1. Equalization Is Not an Urgent Matter

The “money from her spouse” she was asking for was, in substance, equalization — the division of the spouses’ net family property. Equalization is the final account of the whole case. It can only be calculated once both spouses have fully disclosed their property and every item has been checked: you work out each spouse’s net family property, and the one with more pays half the difference to the other. Until that accounting is done, nobody knows who owes whom, or how much. A court cannot pay out half of a number that doesn’t exist yet. The sale proceeds being transferred away doesn’t change this: that money is dealt with inside the final equalization accounting, not paid out to you partway through.

One exception needs to be stated clearly. Unless both spouses agree, a court will not divide property partway through a case on a motion. But if one spouse is in genuine financial difficulty and cannot get by, they can ask for some money to be released early for living expenses. That money is advanced on a without prejudice basis: receiving it now does not mean it is finally yours. Think of it as drawing ahead of time on the share you are expected to receive — when the final accounting is done, the advance is counted back in.

2. Urgency Is About Whether the Children Can Get By — Not About How Urgent You Feel

The court has its own standard for “urgent,” and it falls into a few recognizable categories: a risk to a child’s safety — violence, threats of harm, a dangerous home environment; a risk the child will be taken — your spouse is about to leave Ontario or the country with the child, or has already taken the child and won’t return them; property being dissipated right now — your spouse is transferring money or hiding assets, so that by the time a conference date arrives the property would be gone and the loss could not be undone; and genuine financial desperation — child support cut off, and you cannot cover rent or food. What these share: it is happening now and cannot wait, the consequences are serious, and there are concrete facts on the table — not speculation, not worry. Your sense of urgency is real: your half of the property is in your spouse’s hands, and that feels unfair. But it fits none of these categories — that account can still be settled at the end, so the court does not treat it as urgent. Property moves at property’s pace: a final accounting at the end.

3. Temporary Support and Final Equalization Are Two Different Things

A word about motions themselves: a motion is generally the vehicle for temporary matters in the middle of a case — where the children live for now, how much temporary support is paid for now. Final determinations are not made on motions. Equalization is a final determination, so asking for it by motion is the wrong vehicle from the start.

A child’s temporary arrangements and temporary child support can be dealt with in the middle of a case — a judge can address them at a case conference, so the children’s lives aren’t left hanging. Equalization cannot. There is no such thing as “temporary equalization”; there is only the final number. Bundle the two into one urgent motion, and the part that could have been dealt with urgently gets dragged down by the part that never could be — and the whole motion is dismissed.

So it isn’t that no money motion can ever be urgent. Child support cut off, children you can’t support — that can be urgent. Your half of the property — that cannot. Tell the accounts apart and put each one on its own track: urgent matters in their own motion, final accounting at the end, and you won’t waste a motion.

FAQs

1. We’re halfway through the case. Can the court order my spouse to pay me part of my equalization now, to tide me over?

Equalization itself can’t be collected mid-case — unless both spouses agree, a court won’t divide property partway through. But if you are in genuine financial difficulty, you can ask for an advance: some money released early for living expenses. The advance is made on a without prejudice basis — it is your expected share paid to you ahead of time, not a final award, and it is counted back in when the final accounting is done. If the real pressure is the children’s living costs, that runs on the support track: temporary child support can be addressed mid-case.

2. When do I actually receive the equalization payment?

At the end of the case — when you settle and sign an agreement, or when a judge decides. Before that, the work is full financial disclosure from both sides and getting the accounting right. The equalization figure comes out of that final set of books.

3. I put the sale proceeds, child support, and equalization in one urgent motion. Why was the whole thing dismissed?

It comes down to the word “urgent.” An urgent motion is for matters that have just arisen, are happening now, and can’t wait. Your situation had already existed for some time: the money had been transferred long before, and the support problem was not new either. After that much time had passed, the court did not see a situation that couldn’t wait, so it would not hear the matter as an urgent motion. That doesn’t mean the court won’t deal with it — it means it can’t go through the urgent door. It follows the ordinary route: a case conference first, then the normal schedule.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create a lawyer-client relationship.