THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN CANADIAN FAMILY LAW PROCEDURE |
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| Authors: | D. A. Rollie Thompson |
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| Affiliation: | D. A. Rollie Thompson is a professor at Dalhousie Law School, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he has taught family law, civil procedure, evidence and clinical law since 1982. He has been a member of the Nova Scotia Bar since 1980 and has twice served as Executive Director of Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, from 1982-85 and from 1991–94, attempting to bridge the gap between theory and practice, without falling down between them. |
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| Abstract: | "Family law procedure" differs greatly from "civil procedure." Canadian jurisdictions and common-law jurisdictions have copied English reforms of merging law and equity. Canada unlike the United States confined legislative authority over divorce to the federal government under the British North American Act. The Canadian federal government enacted the national Divorce Act of 1968, which had a homogenizing effect on substantive family law across Canada in both custody and support matters for a number of years. There are many pressures for fragmentation of procedure specifically, dealing with the provincial courts. Modern family law procedure is much more like civil procedure. If inquisitorial methods are used or if discovery is limited using "simplified rules" for smaller cases, family law procedure will become two different tiers-one for self-represented litigants and litigants where the stakes are small and the other tier would be one that operated under the "normal" rules of civil procedure. |
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| Keywords: | family courts procedure civil procedure Canadian fragmentation adversary system |
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