Last fall we released an episode of our podcast (Jumping Off the Ivory Tower) entitled “Judges and SRLs: Opening a Dialogue” in which Julie spoke to Ontario Superior Court Justice, David Price, about how to successfully navigate the legal process as a self-represented litigant in family court. Justice Price addressed how and why to craft a just and durable settlement in a family dispute, and provided a host of practical tips for family SRLs.
We’re preparing a second episode with Justice Price, in which he will answer specific questions from SRLs – and we want to hear from you! If you’re a family litigant representing yourself, write in with procedural questions for Justice Price.
Justice Price cannot offer legal advice, so be sure to keep your question centred on navigation of the system and dealing with procedural issues, rather than questions that are specific to the matters in your case, for the best chance of having your question chosen.
Please send questions to representingyourself@gmail.com, and stay tuned for this podcast episode later in the spring.
I am one of the 80% of self represented family law litigants. My personal history includes being a Registered Nurse and a legal assistant. Consistently, I have been subject to “? errors” that mostly evolved around service of documents, etc. I was once served late on a Friday before a motion the following Tuesday and as such, I could not make it physically down to the court house to file my evidence before the Motion. This was acknowledged within court; however, it certainly did not help me. This has happened several times and therefore, much of what exists in the court records do not represent the actual truth. The most recent Motion was filed and I only received the Affidavit (but I acknowledge that unfortunately, it comes down to a he said/she said scenario). As well, my case was initially a simple one but quickly spiralled into something much more complex (and in my view, needlessly). I am considering asking the Attorney General’s Office if they would promote actual research in this regard by asking those self-represented litigants (as well as the other parties) the issues they have encountered throughout the process and to keep actual statistics in an attempt to improve access to justice by those self-represented. Alternately, perhaps consider legislated mediation if one party has decides to self-represent in order to clearly define the issues at the very onset. What are your thoughts with regard to my proposals? Do you think they are a good idea to counter some of the many issues faced by self-represented litigants? I don’t think the genie is going back into the box either and in fact, the numbers will probably increase towards self-representation (costs have indeed become prohibitive or will increasingly become prohibitive). Yet, these self-represented litigants deserve access to justice within our system as well. I look forward to hearing from you.