Separated parents considered to be at “high risk of conflict” can be supported so that they do not find themselves repeatedly before judges to resolve their disagreements. To this end, a “parental coordination” project has just been launched in the Montreal district of the Superior Court.
The general idea is to reduce hostility between parents. And, above all, to reduce as much as possible the impact of their separation on their children, by prioritizing the interests of the latter.
The pilot project provides that a parental coordinator will be assigned to a family for two years, for a maximum of 45 hours, to help parents follow up on a final judgment which will have settled, for example, the terms of custody , those of alimony or an educational or medical decision. The speaker will also be able to clarify the judgment and make modifications if necessary.
Participating parents must be represented by an attorney. Everything will be supervised by the same Superior Court judge, who will accompany the family from start to finish of the process.
For the moment, the pilot project is taking place only in Montreal. It will benefit 30 families, thanks to funding of $237,000 granted by the Quebec Ministry of Justice. A first experimental project — which “has proven itself,” according to the Superior Court — had already taken place in the metropolis, from 2012 to 2014. Interested parents can file a “joint application,” and the family management coordinating judge of the Montreal district will determine if their file meets the criteria.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the pilot project will also promote collaboration between the parties’ lawyers. As for parents, they will be required to participate in free co-parenting workshops in order to be better equipped to meet the needs of their children. The latter could also be called upon to participate in the process.
“By facilitating and promoting discussion between parents, we wish to alleviate tensions and prevent children from being involved in their parents’ various legal conflicts as much as possible,” indicates the Minister of Justice of Quebec, Simon Jolin- Barrette, who adds that the project will also unclog the courts.
“Parental coordination is a new method, which combines both the fields of law and that of mental health,” explains the chief judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, Marie-Anne Paquette. “We strongly hope that this service continues to develop and that many families can benefit from it,” she added in a press release.
However, some parents will not be able to participate: this is the case of families shaken by violence, those where one of the parents is a contentious litigant and those where one of the children has been the subject of a report to the Youth Protection Department. On the other hand, the parental coordination process will take into account various harmful behaviors, such as the denigration of one parent by the other, the failure to respect previous judgments and the excessive submission of expert opinions.
Parents who will benefit from the service will be required to participate in research on parental coordination led by Karine Poitras, a psychologist attached to the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières.
Parental coordination, in various forms, exists in other provinces, including Ontario, as well as in the United States.