The Art and Science of Dispute Resolution

The Art and Science of Dispute Resolution A family law firm specializing in dispute resolution for divorce, common-law, child custody & access

07/16/2026

“ All of us face hard choices in our lives.
Life is about making such choices.
Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become”
- Hillary Rodham Clinton-

Are you ready to close the door to your past and decide whuch door will take you to your future.
That is a hard choice.
Making that choice will decide Who you become. What you create. When you will become that new you.

Choosing Litigation continues the battles. Delays the creation of a new you. Keeps you in your past. Keeps your decisions in someone else’s hands.

Mediation allows you to jettison what does not support your choice of future. Create the new you and keeps the choices in your hands.

Hard choices lead to not being swallowed into your pain. Hard choices include turning your back on getting revenge, forcing others to comply with your demands and finding help so you can heal.

Mediation
Collaborative Law
Parenting coordination all help you to create your future.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”

04/05/2026

Very few people enjoy collecting their financial disclosure in Family Law cases. However, having a clear and accurate understanding of the family financial situation is critical to arriving at a fair, equitable and sustainable financial settlement.

The Court FFP protocols emphasis this by stopping cases from advancing for the attention of the Court Justices if financial disclosure is not complete and filed with the court.

If you withhold financial information the financial settlement could be overturned and reassessed along with financial ( and possibly other) consequences to the person who failed to disclose relevant information. This applies more to undisclosed assets as few will complain if debts or liabilities were not disclosed.

The financial disclosure should be kept updated. When kept updated on a regular basis the ‘pain’ of disclosure is much less than the initial collecting of relevant information.

I would suggest updating disclosure every 6 months.

A settlement that will later be opened up and reassessed wastes the effort, time and money invested in arriving at the financial settlement in the first place.

04/03/2026

As of January 1st 2026 the Family Focused Protocol requires that Family Law cases scheduled to be heard by a Kings Bench Court Justice first undergo some form of Alternate Dispute Resolution . ( ADR).
Some lawyers will tell you that have 4 way settlement meetings should be enough to meet that requirement.
When the lawyers’ and parties’ focus is truly on finding an Interest based solution ( ie they commit to the ADR process) this might be true.
For others their comfort zone lies not in working to reach negotiated Interest Based solutions , rather they are looking past the ADR to having a Justice decide. They would have you ‘jumping through the hoop’ of ADR. If you do this then ADR is most likely to fail.
If the parties or their lawyers could have done this on their own they would not be asking the court to get involved. Therefore 4 way party- lawyer meetings should be followed by meetings with a mediator to try to resolve the disagreements before you leave major decisions in your life to someone, the Justice, who does not have to live with the consequences of decisions made.

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