The Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) is a partnership between the Attorney General, Ontario’s six law schools, the Law Foundation of Ontario and the Law Society of Upper Canada. Its function is to recommend law reform measures to enhance the legal system’s relevance, effectiveness and accessibility; improve the administration of justice through the clarification and simplification of the law; consider the use of technology to enhance access to justice; stimulate critical legal debate; and study areas that are underserved by other research. Pursuant to this mandate, the LCO has initiated a project on the division of pensions upon marriage breakdown, an area in respect of which there is seemingly unanimous agreement that the law is in a highly unsatisfactory state.[1]

The purpose of this Consultation Paper is to solicit input. It provides a brief overview of the problems that exist under the current state of the law, canvasses some possible legislative responses and notes some of the issues that will need to be addressed as part of any reform efforts. The Consultation Paper is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is it meant to preclude the advancement of potential solutions other than the ones discussed here; indeed, the LCO looks to the stakeholders and their expert knowledge to assist it in ensuring that all the relevant issues are identified and that the problems that now exist are resolved in the most appropriate way.

This Consultation Paper will be distributed to stakeholders for comment, as well as posted on the LCO website. Based on the LCO’s independent research, including the responses to this Paper, the LCO will prepare recommendations for legislative action.

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