Raymond Jin

Raymond Jin, an associate at ATAC LAW, conducts a practice concerned with families and their property, and the disposition of both when a relationship or a life ends. Separation, the division of family property, contested estates, and the tenancies and debts attached to them are the matters he conducts, often for clients with assets and relations divided between British Columbia and China. He is fluent in Mandarin and English, has working knowledge of Cantonese, and his correspondence is frequently conducted in Chinese, including the translation of documents relied upon in court.

Family law occupies the greater part of his practice, in which he conducts divorce proceedings and answers claims brought against his clients, negotiates at judicial case conferences, and litigates the division of family property where the holdings are intricate or held abroad. He prepares marriage and separation agreements, and advises upon child and spousal support, parenting arrangements, and the disclosure each requires. Where a property has been funded by a parent overseas, he measures the arrangement against the Land Owner Transparency Act, the Land Title Act, and the revenue statutes bearing upon it, so that the structure withstands examination.

Estate litigation forms the second body of his work, and the two frequently meet. He brings and opposes probate applications, files notices of dispute, and argues the entitlements of a surviving spouse under the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, including whether a marriage-like relationship subsisted within the meaning of section 2. A division under the Family Law Act and a distribution under a will may govern the same asset, and he is accustomed to arguing them in sequence. Where an estate reaches into both jurisdictions, he instructs, and receives instruction from, counsel in China.

At the Residential Tenancy Branch he appears for owner and occupant in turn, preparing written submissions, witness statements, and the evidence upon which a hearing turns, and pursues the commercial leasing disputes falling outside that jurisdiction, over rent, repair, and a right of entry. A steady portion of his practice concerns the recovery of a judgment once obtained, by garnishing order, examination in aid of execution, and show cause hearing, and, for the party against whom they issue, their setting aside. He draws business contracts, shareholder agreements, and wills, and advises upon dismissal and severance. He is candid as to what a proceeding will cost in time as well as money, and resolves a matter wherever the arithmetic favours it.