Canadian Lawyer

compared to the rest of North America to bring children's voices to family law matters. "It's rare that I hear anything as complete as what the Office of the Children's Lawyer does. "I will often hear from kids they just want their parents to fix it, to solve it, and they don't want to make the decisions. They appreciate being heard about some things but they don't want to be the ones who ultimately make the decisions," says Paul. "You also have cases where there is strong alignment or estrangement or alienation and those are much more tricky and I think can be very hard to analyze based on only one meeting in a place that is not com- fortable for children. It will take some kids several meetings to warm up to me and I'm not that scary. . . . I don't have decision-making power." Paul says she doesn't like the idea of the judicial interview and thinks it would have to be an extremely rare case that it would be the best option. Maltz says he thinks "it is incredibly difficult for a child to be in a situation of divorce and separation. For the most part children love both their parents and to force the child to testify and give evidence against one or the other or put a child into a trial that's adversarial in nature would be devastating." The town hall meetings have shown that diverse practices are already occur- ring "across the country and the prov- ince," says McCarthy. "There are some judges who have never and will never interview children. There are some who already regularly meet with children, five days a week." She says the discussion doesn't come without its concerns. For example, there is a provision in the Children's Law Reform Act that says the conversations are supposed to be recorded, but that's not happening at the moment. And, she adds, that part of the mix is the proposition from the assessors that they do it best, arguing they see the child on several occasions, build a rap- port and "that's the way to do it. It's a big issue. Other concerns we'll deal with in our paper include questions like, are we going to have more judicial education, or judges who specialize in this, what the basic considerations are including who should be in the room, whether they are recorded, and what happens with the recording." McCarthy says what has emerged is "very diverse views and diverse experi- ences. I'm really glad we did the town halls because it's going to give a level of authenticity and buy-in." At the end of the day, she says: "There are all kinds of different children and problems and different ways of putting the children's voices before the court." The paper is targeted for release this month at The Voice of the Child program. NEWLY REVISED & UPDATED FOR 2012 Don't spend valuable time and resources updating your precedents when DIVORCEmate has already done the work for you! Is your client ready for a newpartner? The Succession Fund™buys shares from selling shareholders in owner-operated businesses. For more information call Larry Klar, (416) 867-8090 or e-mail klar@argosypartners.com Separation Agreements and Marriage Contract/Agreement ✔ New clauses based on the pension reform set out in the Family Statute Law Amendment Act, 2009 (first introduced as Bill 133), effective January 1, 2012 ✔ Extensive clauses for the valuation and division of pensions governed by Pension Benefits Act ✔ Clauses include reference to new FSCO Pension Forms (applicable Pension Forms also now available in Forms One) Don't miss out on a great program that is easy-to-use, comprehensive, well-drafted and can be applied to a full range of possibilities - from the most basic to the very complex. For more information, visit us online! DIVORCEmate One...From Marriage Contracts to Divorce Judgments and Everything in Between. www.successionfund.com ntitled-2 1 1/17/11 4:34:08 PM ntitled-2 1 a product of Toll Free: 1-800-653-0925 or 416-718-3461 x446 e: sales@divorcemate.com www.divorcemate.com www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M A RCH 2012 41 12-02-14 9:32 AM ™Argosy Partners Ltd.

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