Law Times

Law Times • June 22, 2009 FOCUS PAGE 11 Family system best practices project launches BY GRETCHEN DRUMMIE Law Times toward improving the process of addressing family law dis- putes by identifying and rec- ommending best practices at entry points into the system, Law Times has learned. The project, entitled "Best T Practices at Family Justice Sys- tem Entry Points: Needs of Us- ers and Responses of Workers in the Justice System," is scheduled to be completed in November 2010. It is expected recommen- dations will be provided with an eye toward developing efficient, quicker, and cheaper justice ser- vices that are more responsive to the needs of those in family cri- sis, says Julie Lassonde, research lawyer at the Law Commission. "We are looking at the mo- ment from which someone has a family crisis of some sort and decides they want external help . . . From that moment on we're asking the questions, 'Where are they going to go? Who are they going to talk to? And, 'Who would be considered their first entry point in the family justice system?' It's the very beginning of the process," Lassonde says. The project is based on the premise that threshold issues are usually the most important ones to get "right," said a commission release. "In this context this means that if people are able to identify their needs at an early stage, not only legal needs, but also needs related to their (often overlapping) societal characteristics . . . the sys- tem will be able to offer more ef- fective ways of resolving their dis- putes that are responsive to their particular needs." Entry points include, but aren't restricted to, lawyers' offices, legal aid offices, community legal clin- ics, community centres, schools, police stations, hospitals, health clinics, and courts. The project he Law Commission of Ontario has launched a new project geared will examine whether they are useful or not, and identify other entry points to study. "The project will focus on the co-ordination of different system workers' services through infor- mation distribution, user accom- paniment, and triage strategies. It will involve re-thinking and re-conceptualizing what needs to be done to avoid the tendency of the family justice system to converge too quickly towards an adversarial dispute resolution model," said the release. "These are very human is- sues that we're hoping to iden- tify. We haven't identified all of the entry points yet, that's the project," says Lassonde, adding, "Of course we can guess that the family law information centres at the courts, for example, might be a point of entry and there are people who work there and give information. Lawyers yes, but whoever becomes the first person that someone talks with to try to solve their problem we want to make sure that this person is able to respond to the need that's there." She says the belief is if "we are more effective at the very begin- ning of the process then things may have a better chance to get resolved quicker and become less complicated but of course there will be these complicated cases . . . We think that maybe the best is to try to do early intervention." But, she notes, it's about the process rather than the substance. "We're not going to ask, 'What's the best thing to do in the case of a divorce?' . . . We're going to look at where should people go if they want to divorce, what should they get, where should they go to get the best informa- tion and then move on to step two. It's about process." And, it's not just about di- vorce or custody as various other issues come into play under the family law umbrella. "We want to consult with real people who have family law MARMER PENNER INC. 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We are honoured to have represented Danny McCoy in his lawsuit and to count Danny as a friend and one of the many everyday heroes we have been able to help. THOMSON, ROGERS Barristers and Solicitors 416-868-3100 Toll free 1-888-223-0448 www.thomsonrogers.com YOUR ADVANTAGE, in and out of the courtroom problems and try to deal with the system. That's really an impor- tant part of the project; we don't want to just talk to profession- als," says Lassonde. "We want to try to get to people's needs and so I think you need to talk to them to really understand. We're al- ways open generally to receiving comments about our projects so people can e-mail me right away son consultations, conference calls, written feedback, and she will travel to various spots in Ontario and talk to groups. Lassonde plans to compile results the next winter and perhaps follow up with supple- mentary consultations, and by the fall of 2010 the Law Com- mission will decide what rec- ommendations to make. sibility, but it can be wider than that. Our recommendations will be also geared towards all of the people who work at these en- try points. The project is called 'Best Practices' so we may come up with a document that doesn't in its entirety necessitate legisla- tion. It might be a document that people can use or refer back to in their work when they are at The project will focus on the co-ordination of different system workers' services through information distribution, user accompaniment, and triage strategies. It will involve re-thinking and re-conceptualizing what needs to be done to avoid the tendency of the family justice system to converge too quickly towards an adversarial dispute resolution model. if they have an idea but we will be a little bit more structured than that. We will produce a pa- per with questions, and then the fall will be the main consultation phase so once the questions are out, various groups and anybody in Ontario, can send us if they want written comments, they can write a paper [and] it can re- ally vary in length. . . . We're go- ing to receive this and integrate it in our thinking to produce our final recommendations." She says there will be in-per- "We try to take in as much as possible from the community and also from our own research and then of course we're an in- dependent body so we do for- mulate our own recommenda- tions out of that," she says. The recommendations will not only be directed to the gov- ernment. "Of course we hope that the government reads our recommendations and possibly thinks of ways of implement- ing them, maybe in a traditional way like legislation, that's a pos- an entry point and dealing with people who have an issue. . . . "I think we might have some recommendations for the public but mostly for groups, community groups, workers in the system, and possibly some that could translate into legislation," she says. Those interested may contact Lassonde at 416-650-8232, or via email at JLassonde@lco-cdo. org/. Information is on the LCO web site: www.lco-cdo.org/fr/ familylaw_fr.html. LT Freedom [ "If disabled people could focus on all the things they can do, instead of the things they can't, they will find, just like I did, that life is fantastic." Danny McCoy Untitled-2 1www.lawtimesnews.com armer_LT_Feb2_09.indd 1 1/28/09 11:58:36 AM 6/17/09 11:50:23 AM

• Cover
• Review Process
• A Criminal Mind
• Focus On Family Law