[1] Chief Justice Warren K. Winkler, Presentation to County of Carleton Law Association – Civil Litigation CLE Program (November 19, 2010), online: http://www.ontariocourts.ca/coa/en/ps/speeches/ccll_civil_litigation_cle_program.htm. Chief Justice Winkler returned to this view in “Family Law and Access to Justice: A time for Change”, Remarks by Chief Justice Warren K. Winkler, 5th Annual Family Law Summit, The Law Society of Upper Canada (June 17, 2011), online: http://www.ontariocourts.ca/coa/en/ps/speeches/2011-Family-Law-Access-Justice.htm. He acknowledged then that the Attorney General was instituting some “important changes in services”, but that he “remain[ed] committed to the notion that more fundamental change is needed”.
[2] Ontario Civil Legal Needs Project, Listening to Ontarian:, Report of the Civil Legal Needs Project (The Ontario Civil Legal Needs Project Steering Committee, May, 2010), 57 (Listening to Ontarians), online: http://www.lsuc.on.ca/media/may3110_oclnreport_final.pdf.
[3] Law Commission of Ontario (LCO), Voices from a Broken Family Justice System: Sharing Consultation Results, online: http://www.lco-cdo.org/family-law/family-law-process-consultation-results.pdf.
[4] Alfred A. Mamo, Peter G. Jaffe, Debbie G. Chiodo, Recapturing and Renewing the Vision of the Family Court (2007), online: http://www.learningtoendabuse.ca/sites/default/files/Family%20Court%20Study%202007.pdf [the Mamo Report].
[5] OBA Family Law Section, ADR Institute of Ontario & OAFM, Home Court Advantage: Creating a Family Law Process that Works – Final Report (September 2010), online: http://www.adrontario.ca/media/Family%20Law%20Process%20Reform%20Report_final_web.pdf.
[6] Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Family Strategic Plan, online: http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/scj/en/famct/familylawstrategicplan.htm. The Court’s Strategic Plan includes an emphasis on the needs of children: Prioritizing of Children Initiative – Statement of Objectives (December 2012), online: http://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/en/famct/prioritizing-children.pdf.
[7]Ontario Court of Justice, Biennual Report 2006-2007, 54, online: http://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/files/annualreport/ocj/2006-2007-EN.pdf.
[8] The University of Toronto Faculty of Law, The Middle Income Access to Justice Initiative, online: http://www.law.utoronto.ca/about/giving-back-our-communities/access-justice-initiative.
[9] We note that many areas of law require the use of “experts” to assist in legal determinations. For example, the evaluation of property under the Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3 requires the use of evaluators and accountants to address the division of pensions or jewellers to help determine the value of jewellry; and s.30(1) the Children’s Law Reform Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12, allows a judge to appoint “a person who has technical or professional skill to assess and report to the court on the needs of the child and the ability and willingness of the parties or any of them to satisfy the needs of the child.” Our reference to the use of experts other than legal experts is slightly different, however: we mean the need of experts in other disciplines to consider the non-legal problems faced by family disputants as a way of understanding the part those problems play in relation to the legal dispute and how addressing those problems can either reduce the legal dispute or focus the legal dispute or help prevent the parties returning to court again and again.
[10] Professor Julie Macfarlane has been completing a study in which she and her team interviewed 250 unrepresented litigants in three provinces, including Ontario, and 100 “upfront” workers, such as those at the court counter and duty counsel (Conversation with the LCO, November 27, 2012). The study was at the pre-analysis stage; however, Macfarlane says that the “pattern is very clear”. Also see Don Butler, “Self-represented litigants ‘treated with contempt’ by many judges, study finds” Ottawa Citizen (January 1, 2013), online: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/story.html?id=7762754. This article also refers to the Macfarlane study and her findings.
[11] Anne-Marie Ambert, Divorce: Facts, Causes and Consequences (3rd ed) (Vanier Institute of the Family, November 2009), online: http://www.vanierinstitute.ca/include/get.php?nodeid=190. In 2008, about 42% of marriages in Ontario were projected to end in divorce before the couples’ thirtieth wedding anniversary: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Indicators of Well-being in Canada: Family Life – Divorce, online: http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r@-eng.jsp?iid=76. Our report does not address divorce proceedings or differentiate between separation and divorce, since its focus is on the early stages at which family law disputants seek assistance. Also see Noel Semple, Cost-Benefit Analysis of Family Service Delivery: Disease, Prevention, and Treatment (June 2010) (Commissioned by the LCO) 3, online: http://www.lco-cdo.org/family-law-process-call-for-papers-semple.pdf.
[12] Some 80 per cent of divorces are uncontested: Mary Bess Kelly, “Divorce cases in civil court, 2010/2011” Juristat (Statistic Canada, March 12, 2012) 5, online: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/11634-eng.pdf. Kelly points out that divorce rates have declined approximately 2 per cent per year over the period 2006/2007 and 2010/2011: 9.
[13] Ab Currie, The Legal Problems of Everyday Life: The Nature, Extent and Consequences of Justiciable Problems
Experienced by Canadians (Government of Canada, 2009) 34, online: http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/rr07_la1-rr07_aj1/rr07_la1.pdf. Over 81 per cent said that it was “extremely important” to resolve their family breakdown problems.
[14] LCO, Voices from a Broken Family Justice System, note 3, 31. As we explained in the results of the consultations, the children had been “brought together by a counselling service with which they had been involved. The children and their parents signed written consents to participate in this consultation. The head of this counselling service, who has significant experience providing services to youth and their parents, co-facilitated the meeting.” A review of the family law system in the U.K. reported similar findings: UK Ministry of Justice, Family Justice Review Interim Report (March 2011) 151-52, online: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/162316/family-justice-review-interim-rep.pdf.pdf. The Final Report was released in November 2011, online: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/162302/family-justice-review-final-report.pdf.pdf. The U.K. study addressed state child proceedings, as well as their role in private proceedings, and was concerned with all stages of the process.
[15] Ambert points out that research results on the consequences of a divorce are not always consistent and that studies do not cover sufficiently extended periods of time. Ambert, note 11, 24.
[16] UK Ministry of Justice, Family Justice Review Interim Report, note 14, 151.
[17] Molly Dragiewicz and Albert DeKeseredy, Experiences of Abused Women in the Family Courts in Eight Regions in Ontario (Luke’s Place Support and Resource Centre for Women and Children, 2008) 50, online: http://www.lukesplace.ca/pdf/Study-on-the-Experiences-of-Abused-Women.pdf.
[18] Semple, note 11, 17.
[19] Semple, note 11, 18-19.
[20] Semple, note 11, 34-35.
[21] Dragiewicz and Dekeseredy, note 17.
[22] Currie, note 13, 19.
[23] Currie, note 13, 16 and 19.
[24] Currie, note 13, 46.
[25] Michael Trebilcock, Report of the Legal Aid Review (Ministry of the Attorney General, 2008) vi, online: http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/pubs/trebilcock/legal_aid_report_2008_EN.pdf.
[26] The Vanier Institute reports that of all working people in Canada, female