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  • McGuinty Government Launches New Tool To Help Court Users

    Ontario is taking the next steps in its family justice reforms by providing information sessions and launching an online tool to complete legal forms.

    The new Ontario Court Forms Assistant is an interactive website to help people fill out 11 of the most commonly-used Ontario family and civil court forms. This will make it easier to:

    * Get a restraining order
    * Apply for custody of a child or change a child support order
    * Start a case in family court or respond to a family law claim.

    Information programs will help people to understand the effects of separation and divorce on adults and children, as well as alternatives to litigation.

    These reforms will help to make the family courts faster and easier to use.

    https://formsassistant.ontariocourtf...e.aspx?lang=en

  • #2
    Separation and Divorce Education has been a long time coming to this Province! I am a true supporter that all separating and divorcing couples should be mandated to attend education courses on how to emotionally, financially and mentally manuver through this process. The education process needs to cover a component on how separation and divorce effects children!! There needs to be an essential focus on parenting after separation and what the Rights of the Child should be!!
    Once the education process is completed, it should also be mandated that separating couples attend mediation to attempt to settle matters and only if and when these steps are completed, are they allowed to file in court.
    At least they will have the basics of the system down as well as what would be expected of them in family court.
    My biggest pet peeve is people who run to court without the slightest knowlege of what their rights and the rights of others are...the ones who suffer in separation are the children!! As an adult child of hostile divorcing parents, and after spending 10 years of my childhood in court houses listening to my parents bickering and fighting...and then years afterwards...living through parental alienation...I can attest to the damage that the anger and hostility and self absorbed parental conflict can do to a child and to the dynamic of future relationships of that child.
    Its time for changes and time to force those changes!!
    Sorry for the rant!!!! Seemed like a good time to get it off my chest!! lol

    Comment


    • #3
      I am a true and loyal supporter of mediation first, court second. However, I do need to bring to the attention of all members of this forum, that everyone should know their rights before entering into mediation. There is a wealth of information on the web and in justice cases to warn against mediation if there is or continues to be a power imbalance in the relationship. Any current or past substantiated evidence of emotional, physical, sexual or financial abuse, is a clear indicator that mediation could in fact be harmful. Nothing is more devastating than to be placed in the room with your current or former abuser and expected to be able to negotiate in good faith. There are some wonderful alternatives though - shuttle mediation where the trained mediator goes from partner to partner in separate rooms, parenting coordinators who can assist in establishing parenting plans, legal advise pror to mediation, and finally ensure that you have a trained family mediator who understands the dynamics of abuse. I speak from experience!

      Comment


      • #4
        Susiecanoe has a good point. And mediation is not for everyone. A trained and enlightened mediator will have the ability to recognize that such situations exist and should be the first person to step up and offer alternatives to mediation should a power imbalance exist.
        But education is important. Seperating and Divorcing couples in Ontario, be it amicable or not, have less available tools than in other Provinces and the vast majority of people turn to the courts to settle disputes rather then being pushed to look at alternative methods.
        The Ontario Family Court needs to look at the fundamentals that other Provinces have taken on and follow suit.
        Some methods may not be right for everyone, but a step closer to what is right compared to what is available now.

        Comment


        • #5
          Mediation is fantastic, BUT I will say this it is not always a solution. Instead of Mediation there needs to be a case assesor, to find out if mediation can work for the seperating/divorcing parents. In 60% or more it will work but do not waste their time and or money if it cannot work. For those that are not canidates for mediation they need to be informed of their options, given a list of lawyers, and adr's (alternative dispute resolution.)

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by susiecanoe View Post
            ... emotional, physical, sexual or financial abuse, ... Nothing is more devastating than to be placed in the room with your current or former abuser and expected to be able to negotiate in good faith. ...
            Why do I get the feeling after being on this board for so long that the majority of women, or at the least an unreasonably high percentage, feel this way about their ex? An unjustifiable perversion of society is placing too many men in the category of 'abuser'.

            And yes, my ex is in that percentage.
            Last edited by billm; 10-20-2010, 09:50 AM.

            Comment


            • #7
              Primarily because the majority of people on this board are in medium to high conflict separations and the population here is skewed to include a lot of folks who were, or feel, hard done by. The population at large is not well represented here.

              That said, there's no question that some (not all, men and women) people play that abuse card strategically in order to manage a deceitful campaign to screw their ex.

              It's very sad because those bad apples take away from the legitimacy of valid claimants of abuse.

              Comment


              • #8
                Ugh you would not believe waht I read last night.....It makes my brain hurt hopefully it doesnt do the same to you.

                In parallel cases such as a criminal and famil law proceeding happens a the same time ......

                Criminal COurtParent A assalts Parent B) Prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doublt an offence was commited, we all know if prosecution fails to do this it leads to acquittal, meaning the evidence didnt establish "beyond a resonable doubt" the crime was comited. This does not mean Parent A is not guilty but rather the evidence din't establish the degree of certainty the offence was commited....Flip to Family Court:

                If a parent was acquitted in criminal court, or for some reason the charge is/was withdrawn, it is still possible for a family Judge to conclude that parent A probably assaulted parent B, even though the evidence did not persuade the criminal court Judge or jury "beyond a reasonable doubt".....What if family court finds that parent A assaulted parent B? Does this ruling bind the criminal court and require that parent A be convicted? Nope....Proof on balance of probabilities can never be enough to justify a criminal finding of guilt. The criminal court will not find parent A guilty unless the evidence satisfies the Judge or jury that Parent A assaulted Parent B on the more rigerous standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In other words evidence that convinces a family court Judge that Parent A probably assaulted Parent B may not be compelling enoughto convince a Judge or Jury beyond a resonable doubt that Parent A assaulted parent B......


                Brain hurt yet theres more where that came from.

                Comment


                • #9
                  What about this, women often file criminal complaint to gain an advantage for family court. Hapeened to me where I was accused of rape 3 days before she was to move out as per her lawyer letter. And this related to a year before as we had sex one night but stopped because her arm hurt. So she simply said that it was not what she had in mind when she entered the bedroom, and the wheels from there on just kept on rolling. Of course my version of the fact was never asked by police which immediately throw me in jail on the sole word of a vengeful ex. Of course there was never any rape and they kept dragging this even when at preliminary we brought her in for questionning and say that I stopped when she asked me, of course I stopped as we always did when one of us did not feel like continuing. What kept it going was that we never asked if the other wanted to have sex. This we had done frequently during our relationship we never really ask point blank it just happened. So what next i loss my house even if this was under my name, and the family law judge made all kingd of mistake as there was work to be done on the house so he authorized me going there as long as she was not there. So i got slap for breaking my condition which again did not go nowhere. I kick her out with the court but she had already taken everything and got slap again for breaking my condition as I did not know where she went. She was living in front of my bank and the post office. My point really here is that someone recommended to her that she filed criminal charge, even if they were untrue. Later they asked me to make a donation to the same agency for women that she was with. Now you know who was telling her to file criminal charge. Of course the crown attorney would never get her for lying even when there was proof.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Wow Max22258, that happens way too often, happened to my husband with an assault charge...Unbelievable! Unfair and certainly unjust!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      i would like to see a cap on divorce of say $20,000 total ,
                      if a review suggests due to complications it will be more it
                      goes onto a bidding system where lawyers compete for your
                      business and must complete the file on/under budget.


                      this takes some of the power lawyers have in this system they
                      built away from them and make them somewhat more accountable
                      for the $.

                      through disclosure where lawyers see every dime you/X have lawyers took my family with an equity of 1/2 million to the cleaners, the mother was documented as a violent child abuser
                      but the battle ragged on for almost 4 years with lawyers unmotivated
                      to bring things to an end ...

                      i am now worth nothing , infact less than nothing from my creditors view

                      the above is real reform ... not filling out forms

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I find strange that there is people here (mostly women) that go and brag about mediation when in the majority of cases the women are the first to go to a lawyer before even trying to mediation. And in some case when they learn of the rights of each party they do not hesitate to make up a story of abuse, rape and whatever they can think of to get an advantage thru criminal court as the police will immediately arrest the man. That is where they believe that the have gain the upper hand and try to appropriate the most they can. I wish there was a day when the people that make false accusation are process thru the justice system with the equal penality of what their accusation may have lead to. I have work hard for my money and to reach where I am now, I just wish some women would do the same and stop taking men for a cash cow. There is a reason why sopme women fight for equality and this means that there would be a split 50/50 and that there should not be any spousal support or consideration where the women are better at raising a child.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand all that. Are you saying all women brag about mediation? Are you saying that all women make up stories of rape and abuse? Are you saying that all women view men as a cash cow? Why do you only wish some women wouldn't?

                          Perhaps it would make more sense to you if you realized that some people find mediation helpful, some people make up stories, and some people view their spouse as a cash cow, but these aren't all the same people.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Hopefully you have not been thru all what had happened to me. Yes most brag about mediation but run to court or to a lawyer as soon it does not go their way. I did not say all women make up story of abuse , rape, harassment or violence but here having been victim of such a story I was amazed when I went to pre trial all the people that had been accused of such act. You have to be in the context that when we did the preliminary and she was brought to court, she did not make sense. But still the crown attorney (a women) drag it all the way to pretrial and there the crown attorney dropped all charge. By then it was too late all my house had been empty of its content. I was accused of rape, harassment (arrested right away and put in jail). Rape was when we were together as one night she did not feel like having sex apparently before entering the room, and when we did had sex she asked me to stop which I did. The sle reason where she said that she was not thinking about having sex when entering the room was look as rape. Of course during our relationship we have seldom ask even when it was her initiating sex. See in court there was so many cases at pretrial that was similar to my case.

                            The twist in all that is that the crown attorney pushed that I make a donation and everything would be dropped, a donation to the same agency that my ex went to and which I refused.

                            Yes the court see the men as cash cow and also the women that uses it. I never said that mediation was not helpfull, In my case it only happen when she saw that her lawyer being paid by the province would not longer be able to continue as they have a certain amount of hours in most case. So they quickly try to settle but only after the criminal charge were dropped, as they tried to get the house.The province guideline is not something that are follow in court so do not imagine you go to court and what you paid for is yours under common law.

                            Me the reasonable thing to do would be for a judge to force mediation and the first thing that should occur is that the mediator tell the right of each under the law. This will reduce stupid court time.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Appears that you had at least a civil and criminal action/information occurring maybe at the same time. If so, Mediation is not appropriate in the latter.

                              Comment

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