Law Commission of Ontario Interim Report on Family Justice System

The Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) has released an Interim Report Towards a More Responsive and Effective Family Law System. From the executive summary:

"The purpose of the LCO’s project on family law process, with its emphasis on the entry points to the system, is to recommend ways that the system can be simplified and made more effective and responsive to the diversity of families facing breakdown. We believe that the early stages of a family law problem are often crucial for the way a family dispute is resolved. Our projects builds on the reforms that have been implemented over the past two years by the Ministry of the Attorney General and other bodies such as Legal Aid Ontario, and takes into consideration the many studies and reforms proposed by others studying this area. "

"This Interim Report follows several other documents, released by the Law Commission of Ontario, including an Options Paper in 2009, a 2009 Consultation Paper and a 2010 paper setting out the results of the consultations. In this Interim Report we make short term recommendations, accepting that funding for more fundamental changes may be limited in the near future, and long term recommendations, intended to be more transformative."

Among the interim recommendations made by the Commission are:

• the creation of one online hub with legal and non-legal information for families;
• improved access for members of Aboriginal communities;
• in the long run, comprehensive, multidisciplinary family centres close to communities as the gateway to specialized family (legal) services
  

Public consultations on the Interim Report will run until April 30, 2012. The Commission anticipates releasing a Final Report in mid 2012.