Osgoode is excited to welcome Ontario’s Family Law Limited Scope Services Project to its new home at the law school.
The Project, a private-bar-driven collaborative initiative, will now live under the mantle and care of the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution and the Osgoode Mediation Clinic (OMC), two organizations closely tied in both mandate and operations. The Winkler Institute, established in 2014, is a vibrant research centre committed to innovation and excellence in dispute resolution and access to justice. The OMC provides free mediation and conflict-resolution training to the York University community as well as the Greater Toronto Area.
Over half of the family law cases in Canada’s courts involve self-represented litigants. The Project seeks to improve access to justice for middle-income Ontarians by establishing an online directory of trained lawyers willing to provide unbundled legal services. These services, which include limited-scope retainers, legal coaching, and summary legal counsel in family law matters allow clients to maintain general control over the case while also receiving legal services from a lawyer on specific tasks.
Shelley Kierstead, academic co-director of the Winkler Institute and family law professor, “is delighted that this valuable and necessary endeavour has found a new home at Osgoode” and “look[s] forward to further developing its various components to respond to Ontario families’ evolving needs.” Trevor Farrow, Kierstead’s Osgoode colleague and academic co-director agrees: “finding creative ways to provide more legal services to more people will be an important part of solving Canada’s growing access to justice crisis, particularly in the area of family law.”
Osgoode wishes to thank Principal Investigator Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, Legal Co-Investigator Professor Nicholas Bala, Chair of the Project’s Steering Committee Tami Moscoe and Senior Program Director Helena Birt for their tireless work on the Project since its launch in 2018. Osgoode and the Winkler Institute look forward to the next phase of the Project.
For more information about the Project, please contact Jean-Paul Bevilacqua, assistant director of the Winkler Institute and director of the Osgoode Mediation Clinic, at JBevilacqua@osgoode.yorku.ca.