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From there people will then be referred to services that come under pillar three, such as alternative dispute resolution, mediation, family counselling, and col- laborative law. Bentley believes more can be done with these options. "The biggest challenge is that alternative methods are not as readily available as lawyers would like. We are going to make more [govern- ment-subsidized] mediation available." Young is pleased about the emphasis on ADR. "I believe it serves families in Ontario much better than the court sys- tem does. They and their children are much better off and they are better able to co-operate in the future if they have worked co-operatively to work it out." Young expects her mediation clients who have been through the information and issue identification process to be much better informed about how to resolve disputes from the get-go. "Once parents who are separating understand the legal process better, many families will choose mediation and will come to mediation in a more like-minded way." Dart hopes this approach will take the pressure off the court system so its services can be reserved for cases that really need a judge. "Most of the issues in family breakdown are socio-economic," he points out. "The legal issues can be resolved in a much less adversarial way. The vast majority of people are looking for a peaceful way to resolve their disputes." The fourth pillar is the streamlining of gosy_CL_Aug.indd 1 7/22/10 9:16:42 AM the court process. "It's a complex, paper- intensive process at the moment," notes Bentley. "We've started a web-based court forms assistant. It's an interactive tool where you can fill in family law forms." There are now five committees working on the implementation. "The Family [Law] Rules as they stand are a really good model but people who end up in court are often not represented and we can see they're hav- ing a great deal of difficulty knowing when to file and what to file. Our objective is to reduce the amount of paper and streamline the whole process," says Dart. Bentley knows Ontario reforms will be watched with interest across the country. "It is absolutely a common theme when it comes to family law. There are the same problems and the same complaints every- where. We watch what they're doing and people are watching what we're doing. " www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com A UGUST 2010 45 hildview_CL_Aug.indd 1 7/22/10 10:47:22 AM