Divorces to be easier in Ontario

LONDON, ONT. - Family law reforms aimed at taking the sting out of divorce and keeping money in wallets roll out across the province Monday.

The goal, said Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley, is a more streamlined and less confrontational court process - something the public has been clamouring for.

"It's all about giving people alternatives to the big court fight," he said, and trying to make the emotionally wrenching process for divorcing families go faster and more affordable.

Bentley has called the changes the "four pillars of family law reform" that aim directly at the costs attached to the adversarial system and demystifying what can be a complex court experience.

"It can be baffling and when you're under emotional stress, when you don't know when you're going to have money, when there might have been domestic violence involved, when your children's future is at stake - I can only begin to imagine the complications," he said.

Starting Monday, anyone entering the family law system will be required to participate in information sessions outlining court processes and the community resources available.

Questions can be answered about costs for trials, the affect of court process on children and alternatives to trials.

Bentley said similar sessions have been offered for years in Toronto and "95% found them very helpful."

The second component is giving couples access to mediation at courthouses for free and off-site at prices geared to income.

The idea is to resolve some or all issues before the case ever reaches a courtroom.

Bentley said the third pillar of the plan is to have "information referral co-ordinators" - or family court traffic cops - in courthouses who can direct people to where they need to be in the family courts.

While the first three plans have come together, Bentley admits the fourth point of the reforms still needs work - making adversarial court fights as painless as possible.

But there have been gains, particularly in accessing court forms online through the Ontario Court Forms Assistant (formsassistant.ontariocourtforms.on.ca) for both family cases and small claims court.

The forms walk people through the process and the website has had 54,000 hits.

The hope, Bentley said, is a goal to "take the mystery out of the law and make the law work for people in the way they need it to work for them."

Some of the ideas are in place in some areas, including London, Ont., and Middlesex, Ont., one of 17 unified family court sites where Superior Court justices handle family cases.

London already has mediation available and information services that weren't mandatory.

In the 33 sites where there is no family court, most areas don't have family court duty counsel - something that will change with these reforms.

Bentley said the reforms signal "the tip of the iceberg" of what the courts can do online and in person to help people when they are emotional and vulnerable.

"(It's a) significant change in the Ontario approach to family case but it is the start and there is lots more work to do."

The ideas came from lawyers, judges, the ministry and the public, he said, with leading London family lawyer Alf Mamo playing a large role in creating the vision.

Mamo said the reforms are "really part of a shift of attitude from the court being a place where you go to fight and say bad things about each other to the court having the opportunity to recognize that you may have differences of opinion."

Information and mediation can "come up with a solution that is much quicker much less expensive and, in the end, much less acrimonious."

Too often couples square off with their lawyers and throw money into litigation with no payoff in the end.

And certainly, when it comes to parenting issues, the reforms make sense, he said, to make the system simpler, less expensive and less adversarial."

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

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