Explore key functions of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes, with topics including, how mediation, arbitration, and mediation-arbitration work, how legal support can help prepare, and the types of documents involved. This on-demand program was originally presented as an in-person program titled Family Law for Legal Support Staff on June 6, 2024.  Total running time is 1 hour, 17 minutes.

Explore key topics for legal support staff through this comprehensive program, including family property spreadsheets, understanding ADR processes, trial preparation (including summary and expedited trials), mental health strategies, effective communication, and a guide for legal support staff on reviews of lawyers’ charges. Tailored to equip legal support professionals with strategies to effectively support both lawyers and clients, these programs also consider best practices and tools to maintain digital file organization. These on-demand programs were originally presented on June 6, 2024. The total running time for each presentation ranges between 35 minutes to 1 hour, 17 minutes.

Discuss the minimum duties of arbitrators under the Arbitration Act and the options available for the creative design of arbitration hearings to create streamlined processes that are proportionate to the parties’ circumstances.  This on-demand program originally broadcast on April 26, 2022. Total running time is 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Explore strategies for managing conflict in parenting coordination processes. Consider enforcement and compliance issues and ways that the parenting coordination process can be adapted and streamlined to reduce conflict. This on-demand program originally broadcast on February 15, 2022. Total running time is 1 hour, 16 minutes.

Child support for adult children was once limited to cases involving ill or disabled children and those attending full-time post-secondary education. Those limits have been steadily eroded over the past two decades. Discuss the case law expanding the entitlement of adult children. You can no longer assume that an adult child who isn’t ill, disabled, or a student has no entitlement to support. This on-demand program was originally broadcasted as a webinar on June 10, 2020. Total running time is 1 hour, 4 minutes.

Significant changes to the Divorce Act will come into effect on July 1, 2020 that will change how the legislation deals with parenting after separation, relocation, and assessing the best interests of children. Hear a comprehensive overview of the pending changes to the Divorce Act and the Child Support Guidelines, and discuss some of the new resources being rolled out by the federal Department of Justice to support the amended legislation. This on-demand program was originally broadcasted as a webinar on June 3, 2020. Total running time is 49 minutes.

Discuss the case law accumulating across Canada on family law disputes and the COVID-19 pandemic. Examine the five leading cases in detail, the general principles emerging from the case law, and the court’s test for urgency. This on-demand program was originally broadcasted as a webinar on May 13, 2020. Total running time is 1 hour, 6 minutes.

This paper is complimentary.

Canada’s aging population not only poses a number of problems in the economic and social spheres, but the family justice system is impacted as well. This paper examines age and other characteristics of the Canadian population, recent trends in divorce and remarriage, and the economic consequences of separation later in life. A number of legal issues surrounding later-in-life divorces are addressed, including the conflicting property interests of new spouses and adult children from previous marriages, the possibility that payors subsisting on fixed incomes may have concurrent support obligations to more than one spouse, and the divisibility of old age pensions and other public benefits. This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s 50^th Annual Refresher in Lake Louise from May 7–9^th, 2017.