Drop in to speak with John Howard Society staff on a first-come, first-served basis. Find out if you are eligible for their Record Suspension Program and get help with the application process. Learn about other services John Howard Society provides for people in conflict with the law – before, during, and after incarceration.
This presentation is for people involved in family law proceedings, for service providers, or for those who simply wish to learn more about family law in Manitoba. Join us to learn how to move forward when you separate, how to navigate the family court process, and get an overview of the issues of parenting arrangements, child support, and property division. Presented by Michael Lazar of Broadway Law Group.
Presented in partnership with Community Legal Education Association (CLEA).
Drop in to speak with John Howard Society staff on a first-come, first-served basis. Find out if you are eligible for their Record Suspension Program and get help with the application process. Learn about other services John Howard Society provides for people in conflict with the law – before, during, and after incarceration.
Please join us in welcoming Professor Janet Mosher of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University to shed light on ways the abusive patterns recognized as coercive control can manifest themselves when victims and survivors engage in legal processes. In both academic literature and reported case law, increasing attention is being paid to a phenomenon in family courts that has been given many labels: legal systems abuse, paper stalking, abusive litigation, and judicial terrorism. Notwithstanding the variation in labels, the underlying concern is the use of court proceedings to control, intimidate, harass, coerce, and/or impoverish a former spouse. Very often this form of litigation misconduct arises as part of a broader pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour, as expressly recognized in several recent court decisions In this webinar, Professor Mosher will provide an overview of the concept of “a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour,” the form this pattern may take both pre- and post-separation, and, drawing from reported decisions, illuminate how legal processes are deployed as a tactic of coercive control in family law litigation. Identifying legal systems abuse, especially early in a proceeding, is a challenge. Courts must protect the constitutional right of access to the courts and they have a responsibility in the family law context to decide parenting on the basis of the children’s best interests, which often requires hearing and deciding as between sharply competing narratives. Yet at the same time, the failure to identify and stop legal systems abuse significantly undermines the rights and interests of the spouse who is the target of the abuse. Various measures that the courts have utilized, such as elevated costs awards and vexatious litigant orders, are meaningful but come late in the life of a lawsuit. As such, the webinar will also explore developments in other jurisdictions.
This webinar is free, but you must register.
CLEA is pleased to host Alex Burnett, Senior Policy Analyst with Family Resolution Service, Manitoba Justice, for this discussion of our “Clare’s Law” and how to access its protections.
The webinar is free to attend, but you must register.
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