Retired judge calls for unified family court to be established in Sudbury

A retired judge is advocating for the establishment of a more effective family courtto help families in crisis in Sudbury.

Frances Kiteleyspent years as a lawyer and then judge specializing in family law in Toronto and many other locations, including Sudbury.

She has practised in two systems; the original one that exists in locations in northern Ontario, as well as in what are termed unified family courts.

Kiteley says she's speaking out based on her opinion rather than on behalf of the courts.

She's advocating for the more modern system after hearing about incidents of gender-based violence around the province, including two incidents in the northeast last month.

In one, a 41 year-old Sault Ste. Marie woman and three children were shot to death.

And in an unrelated incident soon after, a 40 year-old woman was found stabbed to death in Sudbury.

Kiteleysays the courts bear a responsibility in the early stages of family disputes to make sure the needs of families are addressed before tensions escalate and can't be reigned in.

Currently in Sudbury, families attend two different, parallel courts with two different judges.

On one hand, the Superior Court of Justice located on CedarStreet deals with divorces, separations and division of marital property.

Then the other, the Ontario Court of Justice on ElmStreet oversees the enforcement of child support, adoptionsand child protection matters.

Melissa Sullivan is a family lawyer with Michel and Associates in Sudbury and familiar with some of the downsides to the existingsystem, although she has never worked in a unified court.

She says in the current system, family matters are rarely deemed urgent even when intimate partner violence is present.

Sudbury lawyer frustrated

"The justice system is overworked," says Sullivan. "The clerks, I know, do their best to try to accept documents and essentially we're all trying to move the matters along. But if there's not enough judges, there's simply not enough dates available.

Sullivan says it's an uphill battle to get matters dealt with in order and quickly enough.

"And that can be devastating for a family who hears thattheir matter is not going to be heard for a month and a half when you know they need something in the interim to at least get them over the hump so that they know what's going on."

Sullivan says trying to be in two courts at the same time is difficult for her and the parallel system is often confusing for clients, especially those trying to represent themselves.

That's a problem for people with no legal training such as one woman CBC spoke to who can't be identified.

The courts ban the publication of any details that may identify children in family court matters for their protection.

But one woman agreed to speak to express her frustration with the slow pace of proceedings and her difficulty in navigating the system, particularly since she hasn't been able to retain a lawyer.

"I have felt overwhelmed at times with the expectations placed on me without counsel to raise to the same standard as a lawyer," she said.

"I'm not a lawyer. I don't want to be a lawyer. I just want a healthy life, the separation to be done, and the issues, the outstanding issues in my case, to be resolved."

Providing consolidated, specialized, accessible resources would reduce the risk of families in crisis spiralling out of control and accelerate resolution for those not spiralling out of control.- Retired family court judge Frances Kiteley

This woman says she's heard about the unified court system from other women, and feels the support and resources available would be of great help to her, particularly in filling out complicated paperwork and getting legal advice.

It's those kinds of delays and frustrations and mounting tensions that the retired judge feels could be avoided if a unified court was available in Sudbury.

Kiteleysays she's heard the concerns from lawyers like Sullivan and clients in the system.

"Providing consolidated, specialized, accessible resources would reduce the risk of families in crisis spiralling out of control and accelerate resolution for those not spiralling out of control," she said. "It would be a big improvement."

She does admit she has no data or evidence that unified courts prevent violence but that her experience tells herthe courts could help by intervening earlier and providing more support.

Ministry responds

The last time the province created new unified family courts was in 2019 when it added eight locations, all in southern and eastern Ontario, to bring the total number to 25.

A statement from the provincial Ministry of the Attorney General says further expansion is being considered to locations such as Sudbury but provided no timeline.

It noted that expansion depends on the federal government appointingfederal judges with backgrounds in family law and there has been no commitment so far.