NCJ Number
93631
Journal
Manitoba Law Journal Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1981) Pages: 321-328
Date Published
1981
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Conciliation services for couples contemplating divorce have proven beneficial and ought to be implemented in centers across Canada where the population justifies the effort and the expense.
Abstract
The 1968 Divorce Act of Canada is not effective in buttressing the stability of marriage or in dissolving marriages peacefully. Effective implementation of statutory reconciliation provisions requires a deemphasis of the adversary procedures of the courtroom and the provision of adequate counseling services. The counseling service should run from the early stages of marital discord through the entire formal divorce procedure and beyond. The Los Angeles Conciliation Court and the Edmonton Family Court Conciliation Service are two pioneering and successful conciliation projects. Judges, lawyers, and academics acknowledge that proper conciliation counseling can yield several benefits: it can save time and money; it can mitigate conflict, bitterness, and anxiety at the time of divorce; it may permit a face-saving way to stop an unwanted divorce action already in progress; it can provide lawyers and judges with an effective means of satisfying the moral and ethical obligations under the Divorce Act; and it may even restore a measure of goodwill between the parties. In order to provide optimum benefits, conciliation services must be interdisciplinary, without cost to clients, and confidential. A total of 52 footnotes are supplied.