Law Times

Law Times • January 30, 2017 Page 5 www.lawtimesnews.com E-filing for divorce on the horizon? BY GABRIELLE GIRODAY AND ALEX ROBINSON Law Times O ntario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi hasn't been shy about expressing the need to embrace technological ad- vancement when it comes to the province's justice system. At an event at the Law So- ciety of Upper Canada, Naqvi said the province is looking at introducing e-filing for divorce proceedings. "We're looking at all different ways to make services available online. E-filing is, in my view, the very first important step we have to do . . .," he said. "I wanted to see on the family law side what could be done, so we've asked to see if divorce ap- plications could be filed online." The potential move comes after the province expanded an e-filing pilot for Small Claims Court last spring. The Ministry of the Attorney General has since said it plans to eventually provide similar services in other aspects of the judicial system, including the eventual introduction of e-filing for all civil and family matters, and online dispute resolution for some proceedings. Naqvi has stressed that the province's introduction of e-fil- ing to Small Claims Court is just the beginning of a larger process to modernize the courts. Jonathan Richardson, an Ot- tawa-based lawyer with Augus- tine Bater Binks LLP, says he is "pleased" by the news about the possibility of an e-filing system for divorce. "Any step which both reduces the amount of paper required while making a process more efficient is a step in the right di- rection," he says. He says there could be two significant poten- tial ramifications. "Firstly, pursuant to the Fam- ily Law Act, a person has until the earlier of six years from the date of separation or two years from the date of a divorce to seek an equalization of net family property. "A party may not realize when e-filing for a divorce or re- ceiving an e-filed divorce that he [or] she is starting the limitation period to seek an equalization payment," he says. Richardson also says that most — if not all — insurance companies "will no longer pro- vide extended health-care bene- fits to a partner when he [or] she is no longer a spouse." "E-filing for a divorce could result in that party being denied extended health-care benefits on a spouse's plan," he says. "That works both ways." Brian Galbraith of Galbraith Family Law PC also says the move to digitize the divorce pro- cess will be welcomed. "It will make divorce work more efficient so [it] should re- sult in a cost savings to the con- sumer," he says. Steven Benmor, a Toronto- based lawyer with Benmor Fam- ily Law Group, agrees. "Ontario should join the rest of the world and adopt IT, which is the fastest, cheapest and most modern way of communicat- ing," he says. "All legal cases are all about communication between [the litigant or litigants], lawyers and judges." Over the years, the province's courts have been slow in adopt- ing digitized systems, despite calls from critics that the whole system should be paperless. Observers say the province has been slow in its approach to digitizing the courts recently be- cause of past failures to introduce large, comprehensive systems. In 1996, the Progressive Con- servative government of the time contracted a company to create an online portal for court ad- ministration — called the Inte- grated Justice Project — but the project was later scrapped after costs started to exceed well past what was originally budgeted. Then in 2013, the provincial government shelved the Court Information Management Sys- tem. The government spent more than $10 million and four years developing the system before giving it the axe. The government hoped the system would serve as a portal for digitized court functions. The province has lagged be- hind others in introducing tech- nology to the courthouse. E-filing has been available in British Columbia province-wide since 2008. Its digital filing system allows users to submit documents elec- tronically to both the registries at its Supreme Court and its Provincial Court. Paperless advocates have also blamed the conservative nature of the legal profession at large for what they say is the glacial pace of bringing the courts into the digital age. Naqvi, who started in his role as attorney general last June, has said he aims to introduce chan- ges to digitize the courts in a piecemeal basis. His proposal of introducing e-filing divorce could be one of those steps. Richardson says the move could be beneficial for lawyers. "While it remains my hope that e-filing and other electronic initiatives can be rapidly expand- ed, any progress of this nature is good progress," he says. LT NEWS Jonathan Richardson says he is pleased by the news about the possibility of an e-filing system for divorce. 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Steven Benmor

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