42 www.canadianlawyermag.com
LEGAL REPORT
FAMILY LAW
Recent decisions dealing with conspiracy and domestic violence
could have wide-ranging reverberations, writes Zena Olijnyk
Refining family law
with torts
TWO RECENT decisions from Ontario
courts that establish new torts in family law
– one dealing with conspiracy and spousal
support, the other with domestic violence
– are likely to see repercussions across the
country, given their ability to go beyond
specific family law legislation.
"Just because we have legislation that
deals with family breakdown, it doesn't
mean it covers all the circumstances
that arise," says family law lawyer Laurie
Pawlitza of Torkin Manes in Toronto. The
torts of conspiracy and family violence
established recently and a previous one
dealing with "intrusion of seclusion" (a tort
against snooping) are all good examples of
how, when issues come up that family law
legislation can't deal with, parties can use
the torts to settle a wrong.
In the one decision, Leitch v. Novac,
the Ontario Court of Appeal judge ruled
