Houston Claire, Birnbaum Rachel, Bala Nicholas, Deveau Kate
Faculty of Law Western University London Ontario Canada.
King's University College Western University London Ontario Canada.
Fam Court Rev. 2022 Apr;60(2):241-258. doi: 10.1111/fcre.12640. Epub 2022 Mar 8.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected families and children involved in Ontario's family justice system as well as family justice professionals in the province. In a span of two years, Ontario's family justice system has been fundamentally transformed, from a paper-based, in-person system to a paperless system in which many services, including judicial proceedings, continue to be largely delivered remotely. We report on the findings of two studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ontario family justice: (1) an analysis of early pandemic court decisions; and (2) a survey of family justice professionals about their experiences during the early pandemic. We describe how the pandemic has exacerbated access to justice issues for certain groups, including families experiencing high conflict, victims of intimate partner violence, families involved in child welfare proceedings, and self-represented litigants, while improving access to justice for others by improving efficiency and reducing legal costs. As Ontario moves past the pandemic, the family justice system will need to ensure that technological advances improve access to justice for all court-involved families.
新冠疫情对安大略省家庭司法系统中的家庭和儿童以及该省的家庭司法专业人员产生了深远影响。在短短两年时间里，安大略省的家庭司法系统发生了根本性转变，从一个基于纸质文件、面对面的系统转变为一个无纸化系统，在这个系统中，包括司法程序在内的许多服务在很大程度上仍继续通过远程方式提供。我们报告了两项关于新冠疫情对安大略省家庭司法影响的研究结果：（1）对疫情初期法院判决的分析；（2）对家庭司法专业人员在疫情初期经历的调查。我们描述了疫情如何加剧了某些群体在司法救助方面的问题，这些群体包括冲突激烈的家庭、亲密伴侣暴力的受害者、涉及儿童福利程序的家庭以及自行诉讼的当事人，同时通过提高效率和降低法律成本改善了其他群体的司法救助情况。随着安大略省度过疫情，家庭司法系统将需要确保技术进步能改善所有参与诉讼家庭的司法救助情况。
