Court File and Parties
Date: 2020-04-07 Superior Court of Justice – Ontario – Family Court
Re: Brandy Charlene White, Applicant And: John William Tracey, Respondent
Before: The Honourable Justice D.A. Jarvis
Counsel: Amanda Cohen, for the Applicant Kevin Zaldin, for the Respondent
Heard: April 7, 2020 - Electronically
Endorsement
[1] As a result of COVID-19 regular Superior Court of Justice operations are suspended at this time as set out in the Notice to Profession, the Public and Media Regarding Civil and Family Proceedings of the Chief Justice of Ontario. See the Notice to the Profession dated March 15, 2020, as revised on April 2, 2020 available at https://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/covid-19-suspension-fam/ [“the Chief’s Notice”].
[2] The respondent (“the father”) has brought a motion requesting that a case conference be scheduled. The matter has already been case-conferenced twice: a settlement conference date was scheduled for March 19, 2020 but has been adjourned as a result of the closure of the courts until further notice. Both parties are reported to have filed settlement conference briefs. An OCL report was concluded on November 8, 2019. The father advises that neither party has filed a dispute to that report. While there are outstanding issues apart from parenting, the father is only seeking a conference on the parenting issue. He requests more than the ½ hour time to deal with that issue.
[3] The Case Management Judge is Douglas J.
[4] The motion is granted. The following directions shall apply:
(a) The parties are to schedule the first available date for a Settlement Conference through the trial offices to be held by Douglas J. Court administration shall fix a date in the event that the parties are unable to agree, or a party fails or refuses to provide a timely date; (b) The conference shall be restricted to the parenting issues; (c) The Family Law Rules dealing with the format and delivery of Briefs and confirmation of the conference scheduled are suspended, except as set out below; (d) The parties are to comply with the Notice to the Profession for the Central East Region dated April 1, 2020; (e) The total time allotted will be one hour. The lawyers are expected to constructively discuss the parenting issues before the conference; (f) If a party is unable to sign, electronically or otherwise, their Brief, their lawyer may sign it on their client’s behalf with the client’s approval; (g) The father shall file his Brief by Tuesday April 14, 2020 (4:00 p.m.) and the mother her Brief by Friday, April 17, 2020 (4:00 p.m.). The Briefs are to be filed electronically; (h) In addition, the father shall provide with his material a copy of the OCL report; (i) The parties are to serve and file Family Law Rule (“FLR”) 18-compliant Offers to Settle when filing their Briefs. The provisions of subparagraph (f) above shall apply in the event that a party is unable to sign their Offer: any such Offer will be deemed compliant with the FLR for the purposes of FLR 24; (j) Unless otherwise ordered by Douglas J., the Conference shall be scheduled to proceed no earlier than Tuesday April 21, 2020, with all material being provided to Douglas J. by court administration no later than by 4:00 p.m. on the day prior to the conference.
[5] The parties are to consider the observations of Pazaratz J. in Ribeiro v. Wright, 2020 ONSC 1829, 2020 CarswellOnt 4090 (S.C.J.). They will be expected to have realistic solutions to the disputed issues which take into account the current COVID-19 crisis.
The Honourable Justice D.A. Jarvis Released: April 7, 2020