Upcoming Tools
Marginal Tax Calculator
The Marginal Tax Calculator assists lawyers to calculate the approximate tax consequences of various transactions, such as net retirement income, liquidating assets, and the additional taxes payable upon spousal support payments.
The "marginal" tax rate is the percentage of tax applied to income for each tax bracket. Even high income earners don't pay tax on an initial amount called the basic personal amount, and also receive the benefit of each tax bracket, your entire income isn't taxed at your highest bracket.
Status: complete, just need to make a change to how the basic personal amount is calculated.
Client Input Website: FamilyClient.ca
FamilyClient.ca will be a place where clients can type in their lawyer's name, input their assets, debts, exemption, and other information, and then have it sent to their selected lawyer.
From there, the lawyer will be able to automatically generate Sworn Statements of Income, Assets, and Liabilities, and automatically convert the data into a Matrimonial Property Statemnt (see below).
Status: the client side is complete, just need to finish the part that automatically creates a Sworn Statement and sends it to the Matrimonial Property Statement, so that it's useful.
Matrimonial Property Statement
This tool is intended to replace the Excel spreadsheet model of Matrimonial Property Statements. It will permit quick comparisons of each party's numbers and positions, permit for more accurate tax calculations, facilitate calculations of unequal property division, let lawyers compare their numbers so that it's easier to see where you're apart, permit quick comparisons of multiple scenarios, and much more.
Status: programmed much of the basics years ago, but put it on hold so that I could finish the tax calculator and client input website. I'll be able to return to finish this soon, hopefully in fall 2021 or early 2022.
Business Guideline Income Analyzer
Status: won't start working on this until the above projects are complete.
Other Potential New Features and Tools
These may not all be implemented, but it's a record of what may be coming, depending on interest and available time.
- Mentorship Roster: where lawyers who are willing to mentor can put up their name, and lawyers seeking mentorship can contact them.
- Agency Requests: where lawyers can locate agents when they can't appear in court.
- Financial Disclosure Tracker: track what disclosure has been requested, what's outstanding. Would use the NTD as a starting point.
- Broken Link Reporting: a quick way to let Ken know when the external links on the home page need to be updated.
- Improved Profiles: so that profiles can display contact information and descriptions, particularly for those lawyers who don't have their own websites.
- Email Addresses: @familycounsel.ca email addresses.
- Instant Messenger: so that family law lawyers can message each other, see who's online.
- Deadline Calculator: calculates special chambers filing deadlines, page limits, adds to Outlook/Google calendar.
- InstaLawyer.ca/LiveLegal.ca: lawyers can be hired to provide live advice on demand.
- BestAlbertaLawyers.ca: a list of lawyers/firms as recommended by other lawyers. Lawyers will be prompted to respond to whether they would recommend particular lawyers.
- FamilyClient.ca
- Budgets: clients can fill out their budgets online.
- Diarization & Client Manager: since data we be put in for the MPS and client intake website, might as well add additional features such as diarization reminders for drop dead deadlines, other.
- Disclosure Exchange: if we ever have the funds to hire a computer developer we could build this system, if court e-filing doesn't address it.
- Bookings Manager: where lawyers, clients, and potential clients can view your availability and schedule time to speak to you.
- Progress Checker: a visualization where clients can see where they're at on the path to resolution, any notes about their matter's status.
- Negotiation Tool: a visualiation of where negotiations and offers are at, where the likely outcome will be.