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Supporting the Health of Survivors of Family Violence in Family Law Proceedings
Many family violence victims seek support through family court proceedings in order to find safety for themselves and their children but encounter many barriers along the way. Some choose to represent themselves in court, while others have difficulty accessing legal representation that is aware of the impacts of family violence. These processes often lead to poor health due to stress, frustration, and trauma.
This project, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, supports the establishment of five regional Communities of Practice through the Alliance of Canadian Research Centres on Gender-Based Violence. These Communities of Practice comprise survivors of family violence and representatives from the gender-based violence, health, and family law sectors, and work together to:
- Enhance training opportunities for GBV specialists and Family law specialists to support trauma-informed practice.
- Identify strategies for improved communication and awareness across sectors to support family violence survivors as they engage with the family law sector.
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Anna Singer, a family law lawyer practicing in Saskatoon, said the term high conflict is used to describe parents who experience high rates of litigation. In these cases, courts see voluminous material filed against each other, animosity, allegations, cross-allegations, and difficulty communicating.
She says if a judge finds that a particular file is high-conflict, they have the ability to order those parties into a high-conflict mediation. They would have to complete a certain number of mediation sessions before they would have the right to come back to court. CBC News
When Parents Kill. Harrowing stories of parents who have lost children at the hands of an ex-spouse. @CTVW5 exposes how the justice system can fail to protect children from their own parents. CTV News | Twitter