The Family Law Limited Legal Service Scope: Ontario Research Survey

  • October 28, 2019

The Family Law Limited Legal Service Scope project is the result of an unprecedented collaborative effort of the Ontario family justice community. The project has an advisory committee chaired by Tami Moscoe, senior family counsel at the Ontario Superior Court, and membership that includes representatives of the Ontario Bar Association; the Federation of Ontario Law Associations; the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts — Ontario Chapter; The Advocates’ Society; and the Family Lawyers Association.

The project is intended to both increase the capacity of the family bar to provide unbundled legal services and to stimulate demand by increasing awareness of the value and availability of such services through education efforts directed at the judiciary, mediators, Legal Aid Ontario staff and trusted intermediaries, as well as the public.

In order to effectively evaluate this project, the researchers will be interviewing lawyers, judges and clients in Ontario about their perceptions of the advantages and value of these types of services, as well as its limitations and how service delivery can be improved.

While the Ontario project is unique, it is believed that there are many lawyers who already provide these types of services. If you have already completed this survey as a result of being part of the project, we thank you for your time.

If you are not part of this unique project, the research team (Dr. Rachel Birnbaum & Professor Nicholas Bala) invites lawyers across Ontario who have undertaken this type of work in family cases or are considering doing so to complete an online confidential survey that can be accessed with a right click at:

VIEW SURVEY

The results of the research will be published. It is hoped that this research will help improve access to family justice by providing greater access to affordable legal services.

Thank you for your time.