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regional wrap-up ATLANTIC We are family: New Supreme Court division for Newfoundland vince, that truism has translated into the establishment of the Family Division of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador and a fond farewell to the Unified Family Court. The move, which required O ut with the old and in with the new. In Canada's youngest pro- As well, access to justice will be improved because the new court, which will operate in St. John's and later expand to Corner Brook, is designed to reduce the time, conflict, and cost of matters for families. The act, which received Newfoundland's Justice Minister Tom Marshall. repealing the Unified Family Court Act and passing Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Judicature Act, is primarily intended to make the law more accessible, said Minister of Justice and Attorney General Tom Marshall. "This new division will now have enhanced jurisdiction in matters pertaining to custody, support, and property," he noted. "Family matters will now be heard in one single court as opposed to the Unified Family Court and the Supreme Court, trial division as was necessary in the previous process." Royal assent late this spring, also enhances privacy for those involved in court proceedings. In particular, property proceedings for common law couples will no longer be made public as they were in the trial division. "It does not serve the public, or especially the families involved, to have these matters dealt with in such a public fashion," said Marshall. "These amendments to the Judicature Act," he added, "reflect the modern realities of the family court in our province." — DONALEE MOULTON donalee@quantumcommunications.ca STEWART MCKELVEY DIGS IN TO HELP FOOD BANKS S pring is traditionally a time of daffodils, sunshine, and fewer donations to food banks. Stewart McKelvey, one of the larg- est law firms in Atlantic Canada, is helping to line empty shelves across the region with a $50,000 donation to provincial food bank asso- ciations in all four prov- inces. "In these challeng- ing times," says CEO John Rogers, "we need to com- mit to effecting change in our communities." That change is clearly needed. Feed Nova Scotia, for example, notes that roughly 17,000 people were assisted by a food bank in one month alone last year, and the total number of Nova Scotians receiving some form of food assistance in the province each month is at least 38,000. According to HungerCount 2008, a com- prehensive report on hunger and food bank use in Canada, the number one factor driving that hunger: insufficient income. — DM Deadbeat parents opt to pay up and stay on the roads dren throughout New Brunswick. According to the Department of Justice, tough new enforcement mea- sures introduced a year ago under the Support Enforcement Act have resulted in more court-ordered sup- port payments being received — sig- nificantly more. One tool alone, driver's licence W suspension, has resulted in more than $235,000 in back payments being col- lected — roughly 25 per cent of the amount owing in the 230 cases that received suspension notices. In those cases, each payor would have been more than four months behind in making their child support payments and received a warning giving them 30 days to pay or start taking the bus. The Support Enforcement Act also allows the government to report a delinquent payor to a credit bureau; hold corporations owned or con- trolled by the payor liable for the support payments; issue payment orders to any person who owes the payor money; and demand informa- tion from any one who can assist in the enforcement of a case. More than 14,000 families are currently registered with the Family Support Order Service, and most of the individuals required to make pay- ments do so on time, says Justice and Consumer Affairs Minister T.J. Burke. "These enforcement measures were put into place to deal with the segment of payers who choose not to take responsibility for their financial obligations toward their children," he notes. — DM www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JULY 2009 7 alking tall and carrying a big legal stick has paid off — literally — for chil-