Retired judge calls for unified family court to be established in Sudbury

A retired judge is advocating for the establishment of a more effective family court to help families in crisis in Sudbury.

Frances Kiteley spent years as a lawyer and then judge specializing in family law in Toronto and many other locations, including Sudbury.

She has practised in two systems; the original one that exists in locations in northern Ontario, as well as in what are termed unified family courts.

She's advocating for the more modern system after hearing about incidents of gender-based violence around the province, including two incidents in the northeast last month.

In one, a 41 year-old Sault Ste. Marie woman and three children were shot to death.

And in an unrelated incident soon after, a 40 year-old woman was found stabbed to death in Sudbury. 

Kiteley says the courts bear a responsibility in the early stages of family disputes to make sure the needs of families are addressed before tensions escalate and can't be reigned in.

Currently in Sudbury, families attend two different, parallel courts with two different judges.

On one hand, the Superior Court of Justice located on Cedar Street deals with divorces, separations and division of marital property.

Then the other, the Ontario Court of Justice on Elm Street oversees the enforcement of child support, adoptions and child protection matters. 

Melissa Sullivan is a family lawyer with Michel and Associates in Sudbury and familiar with some of the downsides to the existing system, although she has never worked in a unified court.

She says in the current system, family matters are rarely deemed urgent even when intimate partner violence is present.

"The  justice system is overworked," says Sullivan. "The clerks, I know, do their best to try to accept documents and essentially we're all trying to move the matters along. But if there's not enough judges, there's simply not enough dates available. 

Sullivan says it's an uphill battle to get matters dealt with in order and quickly enough.