Ontario Chief Justice Warren Winkler proposes compulsory mediation before court

A few weeks ago, Justice Winkler, in his speech at the Opening of the Courts here in Toronto proposed that mediation should be compulsory before couples can gain access to the court system. Although I think that there are some difficulties with making mediation compulsory in all court cases, I do believe that this is a step in the right direction.

And, quite recently, a collaborative team of individuals from the Ontario Bar Association, the ADR Institute and the Ontario Association for Family Mediation have made recommendations to Attorney General Chris Bentley urging for measures to be taken to make court the alternative, not the default point. The Law Times writes, "The authors want the province to train specialized case assessment co-ordinators to steer as many families as possible away from the courts and thereby leave judges free to deal with the most difficult matters. In those instances where litigation is the only option, they want greater judicial continuity, with specialized family court judges seeing each case through the system from start to finish."

So, definitely, we are seeing a continuing shift to alternative dispute resolution in this province. In speaking with some of my family litigation colleagues, I get the sense of how disheartened they are with the current system.

See the article from the Law Times here: http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201010047657/Headline-News/Make-court-the-alternative-report-urges