Legal Aid Is Funding Separation Agreements

Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) is funding 10 hours for the negotiation and creation of separation agreements as of July 3, 2014. The move is intended to reduce the number of unrepresented parties in family law, as well as promote non-adversarial dispute resolution.

The advantage of this initiative is that it provides avenues to resolve family disputes without resorting to litigation, which is often the only way that many eligible for legal aid can receive funds. The downside may be that 10 hours may not be nearly enough to cover all the areas of assistance covered by the funding:

• obtaining and reviewing disclosure
• preparing a sworn financial statement, where support or property are at issue
• engaging in negotiation and/or settlement discussions with the opposing party
• participating in mediation or an LAO settlement conference (if appropriate)
• preparing and reviewing a separation agreement
• finalizing a separation agreement
• converting a separation agreement into a court order (if appropriate)
• filing a separation agreement with the court (if appropriate)

If you practice in family law, do you believe 10 hours is enough for all of the steps in a separation agreement? Does it matter if some steps remain incomplete, as long as parties receive some assistance and keep cases out of the courts unnecessarily?