Using a Family Law Lawyer in Ontario

We live in an era where “do it yourself” is increasingly a maxim for people to find ways to save money on professional service, and this is understandable because very few people have as much money as they need. In this context, I’ve seen many people decide that using a family lawyer in Ontario to handle their separation or divorce isn’t necessary – even when the proceeding involves complex issues (and many family law issues are more complex than they appear at first glance). When they make this decision, they usually understand the trade-off between having a lawyer assist them (at some expense) with emotionally fraught and legally complex issues such as custody of the children or division of matrimonial property, and “winging it” themselves at lower cost.

However, I want to discuss one element of family law practice many laypersons often do not consider, which is that negotiating the daily practices of the family courts themselves is actually a task that requires a lot of experience and skill. In Ontario, for example, I have had more than a few clients come to me after self-representing, confused because they believed they had followed the Family Law Rules, the statutory law which governs the operation of family law courts in Ontario, to the letter – and they had in fact done so.

Unfortunately for them, what they did not know is that in Ontario, individual family courts almost all have their own tweaks to how the Family Law Rules operate, or their own supplementary unwritten rules and guidelines for parties in the system. These tweaks often feel anti-intuitive to newcomers to family law and are usually the result of longtime practices within the courthouse itself. A few examples:

• In Ontario, the Family Law Rules state that each party is required to send a 14C Confirmation form to the court no less than two days before most major appearances at the courthouse (for a Case Conference, motion date, or similar). However, there are several courts which have longer deadlines for the 14C, and in fact there is one court in southwestern Ontario which requires parties to send their 14C forms to the court a full week in advance. Any party unaware of this additional requirement could potentially compromise their own case.
• Most courts will generally let you schedule a Settlement Conference (once it is appropriate in the proceeding to do so) via a simple Conference Notice or other method of simply requesting a date from the court. However, at least one relatively large court requires parties who want to schedule a Settlement Conference to serve and file their Settlement Conference Brief with the court beforehand, despite this not being a requirement in the Family Law Rules, and despite the fact that any Brief so filed will likely be slightly out-of-date by the time the Settlement Conference takes place (since most courts schedule Conference dates months in advance). Furthermore, self-represented parties who learn this may not be aware that they are permitted to serve and file a mostly empty “placeholder” Brief and then later serve and file an amended version of the Brief.
• Most self-represented parties understand that they are permitted to bring motions to address interim or temporary issues that may arise during a proceeding. However, individual courts differ sharply on how motions are typically handled. Individual courts have different guidelines as to how long a motion may be before it requires its own individual hearing date, rather than being addressed at the court’s typical motions hearing dates; such “long motions” may be required for motions taking longer than an hour (many courts) or half an hour (others) or, at one courthouse in eastern Ontario, twenty minutes. Individual courts also differ on what is specifically required for the court to hear the motion: for example, in many courthouses a Factum (a document which contains the facts and legal arguments a party wishes to rely upon at the motion) is optional for a party at motion, but in the Toronto Superior Court, a Factum is mandatory and if you appear at motion without one, the judge may decide to order an adjournment of the motion until your Factum is ready (and perhaps order costs against you for wasting the court’s time) or even conduct the motion and not allow you to verbally argue your position!

There are many more procedural quirks throughout the family court system such as these, and navigating them – and preventing them from prejudicing your case – is part of the job of a dedicated family lawyer. If you have concerns about the procedural issues arising from your divorce or separation, you should schedule a consultation with a family law lawyer today.