Filing an offer for settlement with the court.

[Pharah]

Hi all,

Recap:
My ex-girlfriend and I separated in August 2008 and at the time we agreed to joint custody with shared access of our son. In January 2009, my ex filed for sole custody and we have had 5 case conferences so far. CAS was called by my ex regarding concerns which have been reports as invalid and we had our disclosure meeting with the OCL in July.

The OCL is recommending joint custody using a parallel parenting model with my ex having final say on health (which I am not happy about but agreed to) and I would have final say on education.

I received a call from the OCL this past weekend advising that the OCL report will not be ready for our next case conference. She stated that my ex does not agree with the recommendation and hence a long form report needs to be submitted.

I have written up what I refer to as a parenting plan that covers the majority of areas where I have concerns regarding our arrangement and would like to file it with the court as an offer for settlement. How do I go about this? Is there a specific form I need to file or should I just submit this with my case conference brief for now?



Thanks in advance.

[dadtotheend]

Make your offer to settle as close as possible to the OCL recomendations. That gives you the greatest possible chance of success.

Five case conferences so far? You need to be scheduling a settlement conference and then pushing towards trial in order to promote a final order. You're wasting your time and money stuck at the case conference stage.

[billiechic]

If you are waiting for a report why even bother going through with a CC? I've had 2 CC adjourned during our OCL investigation. There is no point paying my lawyer or taking time off work to go to court if nothing will move forward.

[Pharah]

I have already adjourned the CC once in at the end of July and I think the plan is to adjourn the September CC as well but at this point I don't have a lawyer. This is why I am asking how to submit an offer for settlement.

[CISTEAD]

Billiechic,
Could you let me know how you went about getting an adjournment? We just learned yesterday that our OCL investigation is delayed and we don't want to waste time going to court. We do expect opposition from Mom however, as she isn't working and thrives on the court environment. Our SC is sch. for Sept.13th.
Thanks.

[logicalvelocity]

I filed my offers to settle by Affidavit. Eccentric but effective and open for future reference.

[Pharah]

Thanks Logical.

CISTEAD: We filed a motion 14B with an 14A affidavit. On the 14B, we simply stated that we wanted to adjourn and used the following rule of law (not sure if this is exactly right):

Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3, s. 44 (6)

Then we used the affidavit to explain why was wanted to adjourn.

Hope this helps.