Law Times

Law Times • November 10, 2008 FOCUS unified family courts, one law- yer who has studied the prov- ince's system says the issue is about more than just money and hiring new judges. "It's not just a question of put- Revamp requires more than just judges W Unified family courts BY GLENN KAUTH Law Times hile Ontario's chief justices are calling for the expansion of identified by Mamo when he called on governments to funnel more resources into family law through the creation of a "prop- erly serviced, unified family court system that meets the needs of Ontarians." The idea was to ex- pand what exists in 17 communi- ties where litigants go to one place to handle all family matters. Chief Justice of the Ontario ting in more bodies. We need to expand the court, but that doesn't necessarily answer all the questions of whether we're delivering family law in the best way we can," says Alf Mamo, a London-based law- yer with Mamo & Associates. Last year, Mamo, along with co-authors Peter Jaffe and Deb- bie Chiodo, wrote a report titled Recapturing and Renewing the Vision of the Family Court for the provincial government. In it, he made 12 key recommendations for improving family law justice, including the development of a plan to handle the shortage of judges. But, he argues, equally im- portant is a commitment to move the system away from its focus on litigation towards other types of resolution as well as towards the support services litigants require. "Those services are not be- ing maximized," he says, noting there's a particular gap in the use of mediation services provided at courthouses. That's because, as the report points out, many judges and lawyers lack confi- dence in those services, some- thing Mamo feels the govern- ment could resolve by granting more local autonomy and input over who runs them. That way, they would be more likely to re- fer litigants to them, he argues. Back in September, Ontar- io Chief Justice Warren Win- kler addressed the problems Court of Justice Annemarie Bonkalo echoed Winkler's call during the ceremony to mark the opening of the province's courts because, she said, services are unevenly distributed with litigants in some communities having to go to provincial courts for some matters and the Supe- rior Court for others. "In the east, for example, there are only three Ontario Court of Justice family courts," she said. "It should be unified throughout the province." It's an issue Tom Dart, chairman of the Ontario Bar Association's family law section, feels the govern- ment needs to address urgently. "In Simcoe County, we're one of the regions that are suffering from the lack of judicial appoint- ments and the lack of commit- ment to the unified court," says Dart, who practises north of Toronto. "We've been unable to maintain the model of family court, which is a dedicated bench of family court specialists." Dart notes that when the province first expanded the fam- ily court model to Simcoe Coun- ty in 1995, the region had two dedicated judges to hear cases, a situation that allowed the system to work "extremely well." Then, shortly after the government expanded the model to other communities in Ontario, the area lost one judge. "Our regional senior judge has never been able to get a replacement for the one we lost," Dart says. "Needless to say, Simcoe County, popula- tion-wise, [has] grown enor- mously, and the need for more judges is pretty obvious." The issue, he adds, is one of making access to court ser- vices easier for litigants, who in jurisdictions without a unified system must navigate between the provincial and Superior courts. As well, Dart says a well- serviced unified court where people can see a judge quickly is key to better outcomes. That's because a judge dedicat- ed to family matters "will have a sense of what's needed right away. Is this an appropriate case for mediation? Do I need to get a lawyer for the children? Are there other experts required? They can make possible sugges- tions and come up with possible ideas to avoid an adversarial con- test. A good family law judge is helpful in that area." But while places like Simcoe County struggle with a short- age of judges, Mamo acknowl- edges that his city, London, has had the benefit of an adequate judicial complement. There, four judges are dedicated to the unified court along with a slate of generalist judges who regularly hear cases. That means clients can get trial dates rela- tively quickly, but Mamo says that even in London the system isn't ideal "because it's still very much a litigation model." Instead, Mamo is calling for gal," such as parenting and budgeting questions. The idea, he says, would be to provide a continuum of services so that "only those few [cases] that now end up going to court ought to be the ones that we're dealing with in the system." For its part, the provincial 'We need to expand the court, but that doesn't necessarily answer all the questions of whether we're de- livering family law in the best way we can,' says Alf Mamo. a systemic change to family law, one that would offer a more "holistic" approach to resolving disputes. Besides changes to me- diation services, for example, he recommends the province beef up its Family Law Information Centres that help guide litigants, particularly those without a law- yer, through the system. "I think information is cru- cial," he says. "I think most people who are going through a separation are starved for infor- mation. That's why we think the Family Law Information Cen- tres should be the entry point to the system." In Mamo's mind, that would involve helping litigants with issues that "aren't necessarily le- government has responded to calls for an expanded unified family court by pointing out that it's the federal government that appoints Superior Court judges. Justice Canada, in turn, has noted that the government has allocated 20 new Superior Court judgeships across the nation to deal with family law matters, eight of which are to go to Ontario. The province, however, has said it has asked for 12 such positions for On- tario. For his part, Mamo isn't confident the federal gov- ernment will come through. "Ontario should not be wait- ing on the federal government to expand the family court be- cause I don't know that they're ever going to have the will to do it," he says. Still, he is hopeful that moves by Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley to discuss changes to the system will produce results. "I think now he wants to try to target family law," says Mamo, referring to Bentley's current fo- cus on improving the efficiency of criminal justice in Ontario. Still, Mamo argues that af- ter "talking about that for many years," the need to change the family law system is urgent. "It's very tired, I think in some ways it's very antiquated, and it's in need of some oxygen," he says. LT PAGE 11 Childview_LT_Nov10_08.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 11/3/08 9:25:01 AM

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• Fatboys Running
• Avoiding Equalization
• Focus On Family Law