Accessing justice in the family courts of New Brunswick.

• Author: Guerette, Raymond
• Position: University of New Brunswick Law Journal Forum: Access to Justice

[Justice Guerette delivered these comments at an Access to Justice panel at the University of New Brunswick, on October 28th, 2011. The panel followed the thirty-third Viscount Bennett Lecture by The Honourable Justice Cromwell.]

Thank you Professor McCallum (Panel Chair).

My remarks this morning are intended to reflect the situation in our Family Courts, and the possibilities at our disposal to dramatically improve the process and improve access to those who must resort to

the Court to solve their marital issues.

Many experts in the family law community and leading jurists, such as Chief Justice McLaughlin of our Supreme Court, have expressed concern over the ability of ordinary citizens to access our Courts. More and more, we are seeing litigants representing themselves, and that in itself is causing considerable disruption and delay in the Court system.

Why are so many complaining about access to justice? They are complaining for many reasons, principally because hiring lawyers can be an open-ended situation where the cost is simply out of their reach. The fact is that litigation is very expensive.

People have an understandable fear that the legal system and their lawyers are going to vacuum their wallets, I hasten to add, however, that it is not the lawyers that are at fault. They are merely following the Rules of Court and going along with a process that is essentially adversarial. They are merely going with the flow and doing what is expected of them.

But it is not only costs. There are other reasons related to process. The system requires forms--Notices of Applications, Divorces, Affidavits, Motions, Financial Statements (9 pages), etc.,--all of which are legitimately required, at least to some degree, but which serve to thicken the threshold requirements for entering the judicial system.

It is just too complicated for many people, and as many of you know, there is a substantial number of people who have difficulty reading and understanding the forms.

This aspect alone is intimidating for most people, and has caused innumerable delays because they are unaware of the requirements demanded by the process. For most cases, a simple entry form would suffice.

Another reason is the reluctance to enter into another fractious and emotionally searing debate, where old wounds are reopened and children are again caught up in the crossfire. So, they put off resolution. When it finally comes to Court, the issues may be so big and emotionally...