{"id":1296,"date":"2025-11-07T17:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.thedev.ca\/?post_type=project&#038;p=1296"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:02:14","slug":"family-law-reform","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/projects\/family-law-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Law Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Project Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many Ontarians turn to the family justice system to resolve issues such as separation, parenting, and support. Despite reforms, the system remains difficult to navigate. Legal services are often too expensive, and as a result, many people represent themselves. At the same time, information about family law is spread across many organizations and websites. People frequently receive far more information than they can meaningfully use, and it is not always clear which resources are reliable or suited to their situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In these circumstances, legal information is often not enough. This challenge is even greater for people with low literacy, cognitive disabilities, language barriers, or those living in rural and remote communities. Some kinds of family problems\u2014such as cases involving violence, mental health issues, or high debt\u2014may also require legal representation in addition to online tools. In the LCO\u2019s view, meaningful access to the family law system requires recognizing how these different characteristics and circumstances affect legal needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The LCO\u2019s project concluded that improving access to family justice requires a more holistic and integrated approach. Family law problems are often deeply connected to other issues in people\u2019s lives, such as housing, employment, and health. Effective entry points to the system need to reflect this, providing coordinated legal and non-legal supports so that people can access the right help at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>Advisory Committee<\/summary>\n<p>The Advisory Committee members were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Suzanne Cadieux<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.city.greatersudbury.on.ca\/cms\/index.cfm?app=dept_cd&amp;lang=en&amp;currid=3027\">City of Greater Sudbury, Ontario Works<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Patti Cross<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ontariocourts.on.ca\/ocj\/en\/\">Ontario Court of Justice<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tracy Gagnon<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.onwa-tbay.ca\/\">Ontario Native Women\u2019s Association<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tam Goosen<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanalliance.ca\">Urban Alliance on Race Relations<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Louise Guertin<\/strong> \u2013 Clinique juridique grand nord<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Justice\u00a0John Harper<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariocourts.ca\/scj\/\">Superior Court of Ontario<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Professor Ben Hovius<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.uwo.ca\/\">University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Susan Irwin<\/strong> \u2013 Rural Legal Services<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lorna Kozmik<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontopolice.on.ca\/communitymobilization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Toronto Police Services \u2013 Community Mobilization Unit<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Paul Lantz<\/strong> \u2013 Keewaytinok Native Legal Services<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Marianne Park<\/strong> \u2013 Consultant<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Anne Marie Predko<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca\/english\/\">Ministry of the Attorney General<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Justice Robert Spence<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ontariocourts.on.ca\/ocj\/en\/\">Ontario Court of Justice<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-1296_421bfc-6c\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Recommendations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The LCO made several recommendations to create a more accessible, coordinated, and effective set of entry points into Ontario\u2019s family justice system. Key reforms include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Develop integrated, multidisciplinary family justice centres and networks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Major stakeholders\u2014including government, agencies, professional regulators, and non-profit organizations\u2014should work together to design a model for comprehensive service centres or networks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This plan should identify which services need to be included, how to meet standards of accessibility and cultural responsiveness, how to integrate existing programs, and how such centres would be accredited.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The overall goal is to bring legal, social, and community supports together so people can access the right help early and efficiently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Build a long-term implementation and evaluation plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The strategy for creating these centres and networks should follow a \u201cprogressive realization\u201d approach, recognizing that full implementation will take time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The plan should also include a clear method for evaluating how well the centres meet benchmarks for effective access, service coordination, and user experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Launch two pilot projects in Ontario<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These pilots should be designed using the benchmarks and lessons identified in the LCO\u2019s report and evaluated to guide province-wide expansion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Ontario government should support the creation of two pilot centres\u2014one in a rural area and one in an urban area\u2014to test and refine this service model.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-1296_708d07-c0\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1870,"template":"","project-taxonomy":[115],"project-status":[64],"class_list":["post-1296","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project-taxonomy-family-law-reform","project-status-completed"],"meta_box":{"project_taxonomy":{"term_id":115,"name":"Family Law Reform","slug":"family-law-reform","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":115,"taxonomy":"project-taxonomy","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},"project_status":{"term_id":64,"name":"Completed","slug":"completed","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":64,"taxonomy":"project-status","description":"","parent":0,"count":19,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},"year_completed":"2013","project_summary":"","project_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/1296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project-taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project-taxonomy?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"project-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lco-cdo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project-status?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}