TORONTO, May 19, 1997 -- People who can't afford lawyers and don't have access to legal aid will soon be better equipped to navigate their way through the family court system, thanks to a pilot project spearheaded by two professors at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School.

Professors Patrick Monahan and Fred Zemans have won a $184,000 grant from the Donner Canadian Foundation to develop a unique, two-year program in Metropolitan Toronto to educate people about the provincial family law court system, alternatives to litigation, and other issues around the legal process. They hope the program will reduce the time and costs involved in lengthy court proceedings and result in a public that is better informed about family law, which involves disputes over child custody, separation agreements, child support payments and visitation rights. The project will offer education seminars to separating parents who don't have legal counsel and are seeking custody, access, and related relief.

Although Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia offer family law education programs, this is the first program of its kind in Canada to offer such a broad range of services. The project grows directly out of a recently released research study on legal aid, From Crisis to Reform: A New Legal Aid Plan for Ontario (1997) by Monahan and Zemans. In it, they found that more than 75 per cent of the litigants did not have legal representation in some family courts. Judges and court administrators in the family courts say there is a pressing need for greater public education for unrepresented family law litigants.

"This pilot project will serve the public interest and help people understand and see their way through what can be a bewildering process. Studies have shown that people in jurisdictions with similar programs are less likely to end up back in court in the future," said Monahan. "We hope that one result of the project will be to increase voluntary settlements of disputes, and that would assist not only the parents but also the children involved in those disputes," he added.

"We are very excited about it because we believe that in light of the cutbacks to legal aid in Ontario, there is a real need for unrepresented individuals to have access to and knowledge about the court system and about alternatives to litigation," said Zemans. "We want to bring to peoples' attention the costs of litigation and show that resolving family court issues on an agreed basis is good for everybody."

Monahan said the project will be modelled after some of the parenting education programs offered in the United States, adding that he hopes this program might serve as a model that could be adopted more broadly in Ontario, as well as in other Canadian jurisdictions.

The professors expect to begin the pilot project in September. Seminars will be run on a weekly basis for between 20 and 30 people per class, serving a total of 1,000 people by the end of the pilot project. The organizers also plan to do follow-ups with the participants to monitor and evaluate their progress through the legal system after they have taken the seminar.

The seminars, which will be led by lawyers and social workers in accessible locations offering child care and translation, will focus on a wide variety of topics, including: