Canadian Lawyer

LEGAL REPORT/FAMILY LAW What's the holdup? W Unified family courts have lots of support from both lawyers and the judiciary but their adoption has been slow. BY ELIZABETH THOMPSON up in Ontario faced a labyrinthian maze of courts and jurisdictions. There was the Provincial Court and the District Court, the Superior Court and the Surrogate Court — all with jurisdiction over some part of family law. Proceedings could be started in one court, only to end up in another. Some of the law even dated back to British 19th-century ecclesiasti- cal courts. "It was somewhat frustrating, hen Justice David Steinberg was first named to the bench in 1969, couples breaking he recalled. "More for the clients than for the judge. As a result, Steinberg was among those who began looking for a new, sim- " " pler process. "When you get exposed to all of this law and how difficult it was, you begin to look for new ways and new ideas on how to deal with families in stress." The solution was to create a uni- fied family court and in 1977, Steinberg became one of the first justices of the UFC. that first groundbreaking pilot project to streamline the family courts in Hamilton, Ont., opened its doors. But while unified family courts have far more fans than foes, their implementation remains a patchwork quilt across Canada. There are 39 UFCs across seven provinces — 17 of them in Ontario. There are eight in New Brunswick, four in Manitoba, three each in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward This summer marks 35 years since Island, and Saskatchewan, as well as one in Newfoundland and Labrador. Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia do not have any. Because unified family courts have to be negotiated with each province, the result is that each province's UFC is slightly different. People like Steinberg began discuss- ing the idea of unified family courts in the early 1970s, but the idea didn't begin to gel until a landmark 1974 Law Reform Commission of Canada report. While superior courts have exclusive jurisdiction over divorce and property issues, as well as related matters such as support, custody, and access, provincial courts oversee cases where no divorce is being sought but there are issues such www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com A U GUST 2012 51 JereMy BruNeel

• Cover