Isaac's Family Law Blog

Courts that Have Tried Binding Judicial Dispute Resolution On May 14, 2021, a pilot was started to test whether a new type of dispute resolution would help people in a family law court dispute, while at the same time clearing the backlog in the courts. Binding Judicial Dispute Resolution (Binding JDR) was started in Simcoe and Muskoka. In March 2022,  it was extended to Peterborough, Lindsay and Cobourg. It has also since been extended to Kitchener-Waterloo. In the pilot, both sides had to voluntarily agree to take this path toward a settlement or judicial decision in their case - instead of following the regular procedure. Binding JDR is a hybrid animal with certain features of a settlement conference and elements of a trial. Photo credit: Sora Shimazaki What is a Settlement Conference? To recap my previous post , a settlement conference is an informal hearing that allows both sides to get an opinion from a judge as to how he or she would decide the case if it were at trial. ...

Binding Judicial Dispute Resolution Recently, I attended an opening of the courts ceremony in London where judges of the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice were speaking. The local administrative judge for London updated the audience and said that the London family court branch would soon begin piloting an innovative way to move certain cases toward resolution.  Photo credit: Tyler Lastovich It’s called binding judicial dispute resolution (Binding JDR). It promises to be a helpful option for the right type of case to help move things along and clear up the backlog.  So far, what I know is that Binding JDR combines elements of a settlement conference and elements of a trial. The process is pursued in the courts with a judge that hears the settlement conference, and this same judge would be the one who hears the modified trial.  I wrote about settlement conferences in a previous post. This project has been tried with success in other regions in...