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March 9, 2009

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Law TiMes • March 9, 2009 NEWS PAGE 3 Lawyer strikes chord with online DIY divorce BY ROBERT TODD Law Times A Toronto lawyer's crusade for the unbundling of le- gal services could become a major money-maker as self-rep- resented litigants seek low-cost alternatives on divorce cases. Robert Berman, who has practised for over 25 years and focused mainly on defending business owners in divorce mat- ters, recently launched MyOn- tarioDivorce.com. The site helps self-represented litigants with a tool that automatically generates court forms for divorce cases. Berman says he came up with the idea about 18 months ago while sitting in a courtroom await- ing one of his matters to be heard. He noticed that many individuals who were self-represented seemed to get "mistreated" by judges or clerical staff. He specifically noted bickering in which judges sug- gested litigants get a lawyer to help them, while the litigants said they couldn't afford one. "Somebody needs to do some- thing for these people," Berman recalls thinking. He dreamed up a free web site loaded with infor- mation and links to help inform people about the divorce court process and relevant laws. He immediately began work on the web site, writing informa- tional pieces and compiling links to relevant government web sites. Then another light went off. "It occurred to me that, really, what the problem was here for the judges and self-representers is the form," he says. "They're highly complicated for lawyers. It seems as the government be- came intent on simplifying the process, they created forms that complicated the process." So Berman — bewildered as to why the government had not already created such a tool — shifted his attention to find- ing a way to help the self-rep- resented create a form without a lawyer. He hired a computer programmer who created a system that allows individu- als involved in simple cases to answer an online question- naire, the responses to which are automatically entered into relevant forms. Berman says he has thrown about $100,000 into his idea. He first conceived of a free ser- vice, but the site has morphed into a pay-as-you-go offering ranging from around $100 per month to nearly $850 per month. The same service from a lawyer would cost from $2,500 to $4,000, says Berman. The site offers all the typical forms involved in a divorce — application form, financial state- ment, answers, reply, and con- ference briefs, he says. Berman Rates see-saw between provinces Continued from page 1 number of cases going to the Supreme Court." The trend is especially a puzzle considering a political senti- ment in a large segment of Quebec's intelligentsia and nationalist circles that has long opposed the notion that the SCC is final arbiter in legal battles that take place within Quebec. The rates of leave applications from the two provinces has see- sawed back and forth for the past six years, but even when Ontario led, the numbers were not in proportion to the large gap in population. In 2007, there were 163 applications for leave to appeal from On- tario, compared to 144 from Quebec. Quebec was ahead in 2006 with 135 applications to Ontario's 130. In 2005, the figures were 158 from Ontario and 154 from Quebec. Quebec was only slightly behind in 2004, at 133 leave applications to 150 from Ontario. Eugene Meehan, the noted Supreme Court expert and partner at Michener Lang LLP in Ottawa and a former executive legal offi- cer at the court, was also perplexed, saying more information about the breakdown of case types from the two provinces is required. The Supreme Court bulletins provide a breakdown in to- tal applications for leave, as well as a breakdown in the type of appeals heard, but that information on the basis of provincial origin was not at hand in the court office. Overall, 27 per cent of the applications for leave to appeal at the Supreme Court were criminal and 73 per cent were civil. With- in that breakdown, seven per cent of the cases were civil Charter appeals and an equal seven per cent were criminal Charter appeals. For 2008, the statistics for appeals heard were also disproportion- ate on a per capita basis, but with British Columbia standing out. The Supreme Court heard 20 appeals from B.C., but only 17 from Quebec and even fewer, 11, from Ontario. Meehan noted that other data in the 2008 bulletin showed that, with minor fluctuations, the court's performance in time taken for decisions on applications as well as judgments following hearings has remained roughly the same. In fact, considering the absence of a full court for nearly six months following the retirement of justice Michel Bastarache in June, the court's performance improved. The average time between hearing and judgment was 4.8 months last year, compared to 6.6 months in 2007. That was despite the fact that the court heard 82 appeals in 2008 compared to 53 in 2007. "The bottom line is that the ship is going steady as she goes," Meehan tells Law Times. "The captain and crew are working hard and steering the ship good and true in sometimes busy waters." A total of 509 applications for leave were submitted to the court, with 56 decisions on applications pending by January. LT www.lawtimesnews.com been overwhelming. "I'm just blown away by the reaction," he says. "I guess I'm not that surprised because it's timely and I think it's really nec- essary. I'm hoping that it creates enough controversy that people start talking about unbundling legal services." The public response began Robert Berman recently launched MyOntarioDivorce.com, a site that helps self-represented litigants in divorce cases. guarantees judges' acceptance of the documents. "That's really the huge benefit to the site, and the innovation, because as far as I know, I can't find anything in the U.S. or Can- ada that does this," says Berman. He suggests no one else has done it due to the investment of time and money involved. "The virtual online question- naire, in a programming context with the form . . . was a hugely complicated exercise because there was so much if-and-then- ning," he says. He hired a spe- cialist to take care of that aspect. Former O.J. Simpson dream team lawyer Robert Shapiro has a U.S. site — legalzoom.com — that offers legal document services. But Berman says those documents are not auto-generated. The crux of Berman's vision, he says, is the unbundling of legal services. It's a controversial con- cept that many lawyers fear will cut into their bottom line, but one supported by Chief Justice of Canada Beverley McLachlin. "It's gotta happen," says Berman. "We're, in my view, as a profession living in another era. The public, I think, is entitled to and the process needs to accommodate the un- bundling of legal services and the ability to self-represent. Especially in the family law context. And so that's what this is all about." Berman says he's yet to re- ceive any negative feedback from his peers. But the response from the public, he adds, has in January when a promotion began for a free do-it-yourself divorce guidebook in exchange for e-mail addresses. Berman says he gave away over 700 of the books from the start of the promotion to the web site's mid-February launch. Since the site's launch, 200 members have signed up. "That's a pretty good response," he says. Berman already has turned his attention to the future. He has acquired similar web site domain names for all Canadian provinces. His next targets are Alberta and British Columbia. Berman also has plans for an added service in which affiliated lawyers will give clients using the online service in-person advice. Lawyers have approached Berman to be involved in that project, and says he plans to have it in place by the end of this year. LT CORRECTION Law Times' February 23 Focus section included a story called Canadian firms taking bite out of Big Apple. Our article incorrectly stated that the New York office of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP confines its practice to Canadian law. In fact the opposite is true. With the exception of two, the full-time lawyers in the New York office are all members of the New York bar practising U.S. law exclusively, acting primarily for Canadian-based DD LT B QtrB-02 Frntr ad 1/30/09 10:26 AM Page 1 clients. 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