B.C.’s new family court model doesn’t support domestic abuse victims, advocates say

New family court rules in B.C. meant to resolve legal matters without going to court have been called “effective” by the province, but lawyers and some advocacy groups say they don’t properly address the needs of domestic violence victims.

“We have a family justice system that is yes, working to make itself better, and we need to do that work. A system that does not provide meaningful healing and safety to the most marginalized people is not a justice system.” said River Shannon, lawyer for the YWCA of Metro Vancouver.

Shannon says groups are “anxious to collaborate” with the province to see if the model truly does work for everyone.

Under the new model, people looking to resolve family law matters, including child or spousal support and parenting agreements, are required to participate in an early resolution process unless there is a “valid” exception, like a safety issue.

The Early Solution and Case Management Model, put forward by the Ministry of Attorney General and the B.C. provincial court, was initially launched as a pilot project in Victoria in 2019. It was expanded to Surrey last December.

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With the model in effect, a “needs assessment” is done to decide if the dispute resolution is suitable. Then people can choose to use mediation or a collaborative process, where each side has a lawyer or an advocate to help them reach an agreement. If issues remain, then the parties can go to court.

But advocacy groups say the needs assessment does not sufficiently identify psychological abuse and urge the province to study the impacts of the rule changes regarding domestic violence, and to not just roll it out because it reduces court backlog.

“We ask for that research be done before they roll out these pilots in other places, and that’s really our concern. This is a pilot project. They should be studying it, they should be improving it, they should be making it work for all folks.” said Amy FitzGerald, executive director at the B.C. Society of Transition Houses.

In an assessment report released in January, the province said “When some or all issues are resolved early by agreement, this reduces the number of cases scheduled for court and allows those cases that do need a trial to be heard sooner.”

After mediation, only 31 per cent of families went to court, with fewer issues, reducing total court time for new cases by 63 per cent, the report said.

The Ministry of the Attorney General says the needs assessment does screen for violence and while its evaluation of the Victoria model focused on “overall implementation,” safety and family violence will be areas of focus for Surrey.

This article has been updated to correct the spelling of River Shannon’s surname.