Ottawa: Not Enough Family Law Judges

My personal opinion regarding the backlog; fix the laws. Every single
aspect of Family Law must be decided in court. In Canada, the Family Law
Act and Divorce Acts are a mess.

H.



Shortage of family court judges raises backlog to 'crisis' level

'People are really suffering,' lawyers say as they make delays an
election issue

Patrick Dare, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Thousands of families experience extraordinary delays in settling
marital breakups because there aren't enough family court judges in
Ottawa, lawyers say.

A report prepared for the County of Carleton Law Association found that
Ottawa is dramatically under-served compared with other communities such
as London and Hamilton.

The family lawyers want to make this an issue in the current federal
election, pressuring candidates to promise to get additional judges and
clear up the backlog.

"There are kids in this city, and families in this city, who are not
getting their very serious problems resolved," said Tom Conway, vice-
president of the County of Carleton Law Association. "It's about people
who are really suffering because of the inaction of the past Parliament,
and we want to get that fixed.

"A marriage breakup, especially one that's bitterly contested, has a
huge impact on the children. The longer these things remain unresolved,
the tougher it is on the children," said Mr. Conway. "Their lives are so
unsettled, it becomes a real problem for them after a while.

"It's completely unacceptable," he said. "This really is a crisis. It
needs to be dealt with."

The report on family law in Ottawa, titled The Family Court in Crisis
and presented at a Montebello conference late last month, found that
waiting times for family cases are steadily growing longer.

By October, the wait for a case conference was 11 weeks and for a motion
was 10 weeks. The wait for a settlement conference was 21 weeks.

If a settlement conference is unsuccessful, it takes another 13 months
to get to trial. The delays are sometimes so long that they breach the
rules of procedure in family law.

The court system increasingly tries to focus parties in failed marriages
toward settlement, rather than expensive and emotionally exhausting
trials.

However, "there are cases that need a trial, or need a judicial hand.
That's hard to get in a timely way," says lawyer Jane Murray, who
practises family law in Ottawa and was on the committee that wrote the
report. For the cases that must go to trial, "I tell clients two years
now."

Another downside of the backlog is that more people are describing their
cases as urgent because they cannot cope with the lengthy delays.

As a result, "the really urgent cases get lost in the morass," says Ms.
Murray. Someone who needs support payments can perhaps handle a one-
month delay, but a three-month delay becomes a crisis of missed mortgage
payments and unpaid bills.

People are sometimes less inclined to settle because a trial is far off,
says Ms. Murray.

The motivation of an impending court date can speed a settlement.

But today, cases languish for up to eight months and all momentum is
lost.

Costs go up because the lawyer involved must spend time to review the
case twice. And the family's emotional turmoil goes on much longer.

The family law backlog also adversely affects other criminal and civil
cases, which can be delayed when a judge is reassigned to deal with an
emergency family matter.

The main factor in delays, according to the Ottawa family law lawyers,
remains the short of judges deciding family cases.

Family law used to be a split jurisdiction between provincial and
federal legal systems. But in 1999, communities such as Ottawa became
sites of integrated family courts with federally appointed judges.

The staffing of the family law division wasn't sufficient to handle the
caseload in a growing community with an increasing number of failed
marriages.

By last year, Ottawa had 6,453 new family cases, with 8,780 legal
procedures heard in court. With only six family court judges, that
worked out to 1,463 procedures per judge.

In contrast, cities such as Hamilton and London have much smaller
populations and family law caseloads, but a similar number of judges.

Ottawa has one family law judge for 129,012 citizens, while Hamilton has
one judge for 89,139 citizens. London has one judge for 84,134 citizens.

The report says Ottawa lawyers have lobbied government annually since
2000 to improve the situation of "ever-growing backlogs," but to no
avail.

Brendan Crawley, a spokes-man for Ontario Attorney General Michael
Bryant, says the minister shares the Ottawa lawyers' concerns about
delays in the justice system. Mr. Bryant says he will press the federal
government to provide more judges for family cases.

There was hope for improving the situation as long as the Liberal
government was shepherding Bill C-51 through Parliament. That
legislation changed the Judges Act, allowing for an additional 27 family
court judges across Canada. Ottawa lawyers hoped two or three of those
judges would be located here. But the bill died on the order paper with
the last Parliament, having received only first reading in May.

Mr. Conway says the family law mess can be cleared up by good case
management, some additional judges and concerted efforts to clear up old
cases.

Courthouse blitzes in the past have cleared up backlogs of criminal and
civil cases. But without the judges, there will be no progress. So
Ottawa lawyers are marshalling their arguments and plan to meet with as
many candidates in the current election as possible to win commitments
to reintroducing the additional judges provision in the next Parliament.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2005

Taxpayers of Canada do not need skyrocketing costs of administration.
The children of divorce couples need laws that lessen the conflict,
maintain there financial stability and provide them with a meaningful
and equal relationship with both their parents. Lessening the need for
Family Law administration and costs of millions of taxpayor dollars.

We have already seen the taxpayers money go out the door to support
advertising companies we do not need to see more taxpers money go out
the door to support the family law lawyers! Although it is a blanket
that they can hide ubder that even Harry Potter would be pleased to
have.

The last thing anyone needs is the input from Family Law Lawyers who
only have a financial interest in this matter! At the cost of ten of
thousand of children being manipulated for financial gain.

Why is the voting numbers down? For exactly this reason. Government has
become wooed by special interest groups instead of the majority of
Canadians.

Personally I think the Canadian people should have a non-confidence
vote on all the parties.

Regards,
Loving father of 2 and pushed to the outskirts of a third, thanks to
our existing family law system.


Henry wrote:
My personal opinion regarding the backlog; fix the laws. Every single
aspect of Family Law must be decided in court. In Canada, the Family Law
Act and Divorce Acts are a mess.

H.



Shortage of family court judges raises backlog to 'crisis' level

'People are really suffering,' lawyers say as they make delays an
election issue

Patrick Dare, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Thousands of families experience extraordinary delays in settling
marital breakups because there aren't enough family court judges in
Ottawa, lawyers say.

A report prepared for the County of Carleton Law Association found that
Ottawa is dramatically under-served compared with other communities such
as London and Hamilton.

The family lawyers want to make this an issue in the current federal
election, pressuring candidates to promise to get additional judges and
clear up the backlog.

"There are kids in this city, and families in this city, who are not
getting their very serious problems resolved," said Tom Conway, vice-
president of the County of Carleton Law Association. "It's about people
who are really suffering because of the inaction of the past Parliament,
and we want to get that fixed.

"A marriage breakup, especially one that's bitterly contested, has a
huge impact on the children. The longer these things remain unresolved,
the tougher it is on the children," said Mr. Conway. "Their lives are so
unsettled, it becomes a real problem for them after a while.

"It's completely unacceptable," he said. "This really is a crisis. It
needs to be dealt with."

The report on family law in Ottawa, titled The Family Court in Crisis
and presented at a Montebello conference late last month, found that
waiting times for family cases are steadily growing longer.

By October, the wait for a case conference was 11 weeks and for a motion
was 10 weeks. The wait for a settlement conference was 21 weeks.

If a settlement conference is unsuccessful, it takes another 13 months
to get to trial. The delays are sometimes so long that they breach the
rules of procedure in family law.

The court system increasingly tries to focus parties in failed marriages
toward settlement, rather than expensive and emotionally exhausting
trials.

However, "there are cases that need a trial, or need a judicial hand.
That's hard to get in a timely way," says lawyer Jane Murray, who
practises family law in Ottawa and was on the committee that wrote the
report. For the cases that must go to trial, "I tell clients two years
now."

Another downside of the backlog is that more people are describing their
cases as urgent because they cannot cope with the lengthy delays.

As a result, "the really urgent cases get lost in the morass," says Ms.
Murray. Someone who needs support payments can perhaps handle a one-
month delay, but a three-month delay becomes a crisis of missed mortgage
payments and unpaid bills.

People are sometimes less inclined to settle because a trial is far off,
says Ms. Murray.

The motivation of an impending court date can speed a settlement.

But today, cases languish for up to eight months and all momentum is
lost.

Costs go up because the lawyer involved must spend time to review the
case twice. And the family's emotional turmoil goes on much longer.

The family law backlog also adversely affects other criminal and civil
cases, which can be delayed when a judge is reassigned to deal with an
emergency family matter.

The main factor in delays, according to the Ottawa family law lawyers,
remains the short of judges deciding family cases.

Family law used to be a split jurisdiction between provincial and
federal legal systems. But in 1999, communities such as Ottawa became
sites of integrated family courts with federally appointed judges.

The staffing of the family law division wasn't sufficient to handle the
caseload in a growing community with an increasing number of failed
marriages.

By last year, Ottawa had 6,453 new family cases, with 8,780 legal
procedures heard in court. With only six family court judges, that
worked out to 1,463 procedures per judge.

In contrast, cities such as Hamilton and London have much smaller
populations and family law caseloads, but a similar number of judges.

Ottawa has one family law judge for 129,012 citizens, while Hamilton has
one judge for 89,139 citizens. London has one judge for 84,134 citizens.

The report says Ottawa lawyers have lobbied government annually since
2000 to improve the situation of "ever-growing backlogs," but to no
avail.

Brendan Crawley, a spokes-man for Ontario Attorney General Michael
Bryant, says the minister shares the Ottawa lawyers' concerns about
delays in the justice system. Mr. Bryant says he will press the federal
government to provide more judges for family cases.

There was hope for improving the situation as long as the Liberal
government was shepherding Bill C-51 through Parliament. That
legislation changed the Judges Act, allowing for an additional 27 family
court judges across Canada. Ottawa lawyers hoped two or three of those
judges would be located here. But the bill died on the order paper with
the last Parliament, having received only first reading in May.

Mr. Conway says the family law mess can be cleared up by good case
management, some additional judges and concerted efforts to clear up old
cases.

Courthouse blitzes in the past have cleared up backlogs of criminal and
civil cases. But without the judges, there will be no progress. So
Ottawa lawyers are marshalling their arguments and plan to meet with as
many candidates in the current election as possible to win commitments
to reintroducing the additional judges provision in the next Parliament.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2005