Drafting an Affidavit and need assistance?

Q: Are you representing yourself in Court and do you need to draft an Affidavit?

Q: Having trouble understanding what is expect of you?

Q: Do you want to be effective at your last?

A: We have HELP for you!

Check out our online shop and find instant download instructions for how to draft an effective Affidavit, here:

SelfRepSupport

Self-Rep Support - Kits and Manuals

Happy New Year!

For a wide variety of reasons about which we will not post today, more and more people are representing themselves before Ontario's family courts.

We have found that many such "self-reps" or "SRLs" (self-represented litigants), as they are known to judges and lawyers, need help. The legal machinery can be overwhelming.

This blog was born from the idea that people out there need a bit more information about family law in Ontario. Since we began posting here, we have noted the ever-increasing numbers of self-reps and considered some of the difficulties they face when they appear before Courts without a lawyer.

While our ability to help you with substantive issues (actual legal concepts, "the law") is limited, we will try and help at least with some of the procedure, paper-work and so on.

We plan on doing so with a series of manuals which will be available to you in our Etsy shop - to be opened by the middle of January, at the latest.

PLEASE WATCH FOR FURTHER UPDATES.

Topics for our manuals will include, for example:

1. How to complete an effective Financial Statement
2. How to complete an effective Application and Reply
3. How to complete an effective Answer
4. Pointers for filling out the Office of the Children's Lawyer questionnaire
5. Steps to take when changing child support.

"Your Honour, I don't have a lawyer" - Unbundled services and other resources

The title - an increasingly common phrase heard in Ontario's family courts.

Between 2014 and 2015, more than 50% of family law litigants were unrepresented.

There are many reasons for this state of affairs - they are not the subject of this post.

Since 2011 or so, active steps have been taken, by various branches of the government and the legal system in general, to address the growing tide of self-represented parties before the Court.

What we want to draw to your attention in this post, if you are a self-rep, are two things:

1. take a look at this website, which has A LOT of very useful information for self-reps. It's a product of an ongoing project headed by the University of Windsor Law School (my alma mater), studying the needs of self-reps and finding ways to assist them - representingyourselfcanada website

2. one option you have, while navigating through the court system on your own, is to get some limited help from a lawyer - these are called "unbundled services" - this means that you do not retain a lawyer for the whole case but rather, for specific tasks only. For example, a lawyer could help you prepare materials for a specific hearing or review an offer than has been made by the other side. You would be entering into a Limited Retainer with that lawyer, based on a set of Rules provided to the legal profession by the Law Society of Upper Canada.

We do provide unbundled services. Many other lawyers do as well. Find the lawyer who is right for you - in your area.

Representing yourself can be tough and overwhelming and we realize that sometimes, you simply have no other choice. Consider unbundled services, though - they may assist you in dealing with some particularly challenging areas in your case.

UPDATE - January, 2018

We are pleased to let you know that our Etsy shop is now OPEN!

Visit it here: SELFREP SUPPORT

In the shop, we make available to you Manuals (E-books) on various topics, to assist you in representing yourself before Ontario's family law Courts.

So far, we have Manuals on preparing an effective:

• Financial Statement (both long-form and short-form); and
• Affidavit.

MORE MANUALS TO COME!