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News & Updates

A few Pandemic financial cases: Condensed facts, high points and take-aways

Avagene Skervin
Posted on October 15, 2021 at 1:42 pm

The pandemic saw the case of Serra v. Serra, 2009 ONCA 395, https://canlii.ca/t/23j1w back into focus: Summarizing some of the questions and takeaways: Will a payor be permitted to reduce his equalization payment pleading unconscionability? What happens if values drastically fall by the time a trial is heard? What about market-driven post-valuation date change in the value of a party’s assets? Can that change be considered in determining whether the equalization of family property is unconscionable under s. 5(6) of the Family Law Act? If the decline in the value of a party’s main asset may be taken into account, would the…

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News & Updates

You Said You Wouldn’t Touch My Pension!

Julie Gill
Posted on October 12, 2021 at 11:35 am

So much emotion, negotiating and misinformation tied to pension assets. As a mediator, coach or in my role as a CDFA I regularly hear the statements below. Do they sound familiar to you? It’s my pension, my husband didn’t contribute. It’s not worth much, we don’t need to include it. I don’t want to spend the money or time to get the Family Law Value. It’s his pension, I don’t want to seem unfair. When I hear a client tell me “I already said that I wouldn’t touch his/her pension” my first question is always “Do you know how much…

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Family Dispute Resolution, FDRIO in the News, Mediation, News & Updates

Mediation Discussion – Regulated college or self-regulated institutions?

Posted on July 15, 2021 at 12:49 pm

Over many years, FDR organizations have tried to get traction with the government for the regulation approach to family mediation and they were not interested. As a result, self-regulating FDR organizations have developed comprehensive practice standards, set expectations for training – including domestic violence and power imbalance training, set high certification requirements and a complaints process to protect the public.   On June 22 2021, an article titled Mediation: The unregulated profession written by Gary Joseph was published in The Lawyers Daily. In the article, Mr. Joseph opines that poorly trained mediators are plentiful leading to uninformed participants, sometimes coerced…

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Alternative Dispute Resolution, Family Dispute Resolution, Mediation, News & Updates

Interview: Life after the Bench

Avagene Skervin
Posted on July 12, 2021 at 12:14 pm

Avagene’s one on one with the Honourable Justice Clifford Nelson, retired judge. So, I have always been very interested in knowing just what judges do after they retire; can they simply walk away entirely from a life devoted to law? do they simply turn to golfing? What other stereotypical thoughts come to mind? The impact judges continue to make in the spaces they occupy after the Bench will be surprising for some and enlightening for others. Justice Nelson was more than happy to indulge a few questions from me via a “sit down through emails with me”. I met Justice…

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Mediation, News & Updates

The Problem with Partial Agreements at Mediation

Howard E. Warren, Warren Mediation Group Inc.
Posted on May 17, 2021 at 1:10 pm

  It appears to make sense to try to get the parties to agree on at least some if not all the terms at mediation. The usual areas in play are parenting decision -making (formerly custody), parenting-time (formerly access), child support, spousal support and equalization of net family property. When I first started my mediation practice, I strove for early settlement of the lowest hanging fruit, to get the parties into settlement mode, both to encourage settlement and for them to understand that deals were there to be had. A year or two into my mediation practice, I convened mediation…

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News & Updates

Self-Care is Not Selfish: Self Care for Mediators and Legal Professionals

Kayla M. Stephenson
Posted on May 17, 2021 at 1:04 pm

In the wake of everything that is COVID-19, this pandemic has changed the way we live with all the unknowns and stresses surrounding work, school, childcare, shopping, and our social lives. Self-care is a must, and as a mediator and legal professional we may often come up with reasons why we may not have the time, we may have other duties or responsibilities that require our attention, and of course focusing on trying to keep our mediation or legal practice afloat. COVID -19 has hit everyone in some way shape or form, and it sets unique challenges for all of…

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Family Dispute Resolution, FDRulings, News & Updates

Case Law: Pereira v Ramos, 2021 ONSC 1737

Avagene Skervin
Posted on April 19, 2021 at 3:09 pm

Pereira v Ramos, 2021 ONSC 1737: Family Violence including the birthing of the statutory requirement to consider “coercive and controlling behaviour” as integral to the determination of the best interests of a child. This case was decided on March 9, 2021, eight days after the coming into force of the March 1, 2021 amendments to the Divorce Act (the “Act”). Although the Father’s motion was brought prior to the March 1st date, Justice Jain was careful to apply the applicable recent amendments regarding parenting orders and family violence considerations.   This case contains a good analysis of the best interest…

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Family Dispute Resolution, FDR Updates, News & Updates

Bill C-78: Amendments to the Divorce Act…In A Nutshell

Vicky Ringuette
Posted on April 19, 2021 at 2:49 pm

The period between March 2020 and March 2021 will likely be recognized as the year of many changes in the family justice system. Those working with families in the context of separation and divorce will no doubt remember it as the year Bill C-78, An Act to Amend the Divorce Act, the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act and the Garnishment, Attachments and Pension Diversion Act and to make consequential amendments to another Act, 2019, c. 16 came into force. It may also be known as the winner of the longest name ever given to a Parliamentary Bill in…

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News & Updates

Article–Seeking Supervisors for the Mediators-In-Training (MIT)

Marie Nickle, Mary Lee and Rachel MacMurchy
Posted on February 25, 2021 at 3:05 pm

The journey to becoming a certified family mediator can be a cumbersome process. A main obstacle that aspiring family mediators come across is securing an internship to complete the required 100 hours of practical experience. With the growth of the family mediation profession, there is increased demand for aspiring Mediator-In-Training (MIT) supervisors. While there are organizations that offer internships to MITs, the waitlists can be long and it can take over a year to start the process. We want to help reduce this limbo period by encouraging family mediator professionals to offer supervision to MITs and help them complete their…

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News & Updates

The Top 10 Things FDR Professionals Should Know About Death and Capacity

Ian M. Hull and Nick Esterbauer, Hull & Hull LLP
Posted on February 24, 2021 at 7:07 pm

From time to time all lawyers and other professionals assisting families will encounter situations where a client or another party to a proceeding begins to suffer from capacity issues or dies while matters remain unresolved.  Litigants can and do die in the midst of legal proceedings and while separation or divorce proceedings, custody disputes, and disputes regarding support are being resolved.  We also frequently see issues previously addressed during separation or divorce negotiations emerge again following death. We take this opportunity to highlight and briefly summarize ten of the most important issues to keep in mind when assisting clients where…

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News & Updates

Access to Justice in COVID-19 – Counterpoint

Kayla M. Stephenson
Posted on February 24, 2021 at 6:55 pm

Access to justice? It is not controversial to say that there have been long standing issues with access to justice within our court system for clients. Even before COVID-19, the justice system was facing challenges for quite some time.  What is access to justice? There are a lot of variations and interpretations to what this means. Simply put- access to justice is an equal right to understand and participate in every situation where law is debated, created, found, organized, administered, interpreted and applied.   Having access to justice consists of having available options to prevent, address and resolve the legal problems…

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News & Updates

Access to Justice: Is this still an issue?

Vicky Ringuette
Posted on February 24, 2021 at 6:51 pm

For this edition of the newsletter, we thought it important to write about the two perspectives that have emerged in regard to access to justice in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic. I will be writing from the perspective of technological advances which have potentially eradicated many of the access to justice issues that have plagued our system for decades. My colleague, Kayla Stephenson, will offer you the other perspective that suggests access to justice issues continue to prevail in our Family Justice System despite recent advances made as a result of this pandemic. What is access to justice? I…

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News & Updates

Black History Month: Equality Diversity and Inclusion

Kayla M. Stephenson
Posted on February 24, 2021 at 6:33 pm

Black History Month is about honouring the enormous contributions that Black people have made, and continue to make, over the years in all sectors of society. It is about celebrating resilience, innovation, and determination to work towards a more inclusive and diverse Ontario—and Canada in which everyone has every opportunity to flourish. This February, we are honouring Black History Month and celebrating black history with this month`s theme:  Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at FDRIO. It is important that in our practice, that we are culturally competent when it comes to our profession in the ADR field. As FDRIO members, we…

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News & Updates

FDRIO’s Annual General Meeting

Posted on December 2, 2020 at 2:50 pm

Our Chair, Neil Maisel, opened up the meeting with a summary of the exceptional year we have had – including the entertaining humour we’ve all come to expect of Neil! FDRIO has, despite the pandemic, had an unexpected good year, a welcomed success considering the world changed back in March: Our membership increased by 25% because of the highly regarded events and programs we offer our members. We plan to continue on this trajectory for the year ahead! Our innovative unConference was moved to a virtual event offering an excellent program that was very well attended. We hosted a Town Hall open to all family dispute resolution…

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FDR Updates, News & Updates

FDRIO Response to Family Legal Services Provider Licence

Posted on December 2, 2020 at 12:57 pm

The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) released a consultation paper on a proposed licensing model for a Family Legal Services Provider (FLSP) licence and invited stakeholders to provide comment.  Over the past 4 months, a committee of FDRIO members has been meeting to analyze the proposed model and form an informed and comprehensive response from FDRIO.  We are thankful to the members of the committee who gave their time, energy and expertise to ensure that the response from FDRIO was representative of our membership.  The FDRIO submission is posted on the website and can be accessed here.

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