The 2018 Federal Budget included funding for 17 judges to create a Unified Family Court in Alberta. At that time, UFCs had already been established in Manitoba, New Brunswick, PEI, parts of Saskatchewan, and parts of Ontario.

The Unified Family Court would be a one-stop-shop, essentially consolidating the Provincial Court and Court of King's Bench Family Divisions. The idea in a nutshell is that there would be dedicated judges to the area of family law (i.e. with expertise in family law), that court would be in a better position to design it's processes around family law, that court's management would be focused on family law issues, legal education wouldn't have to address two systems and as a result self-represented litigants wouldn't be confused about the two systems.

There was a judicial working group that had built a lot of momentum towards a UFC, however the proposal was shot down by the provincial government. My understanding is that at the time oil had plummeted, and the government decided that there were insufficient resources to implement the change (even though the feds would have been paying for the judges), and too much on their plate to devote the time to changing legislation to update this change. Alberta is in a much different economic climate now, and with the formation of AFLA, we're looking to reignite the flame to make this change happen.

There's a 2014 article by JP Boyd, KC on LawNow which further elaborates some of the benefits of a Unified Family Court: https://www.lawnow.org/unified-family-court-justice-strategy-alberta/

A new announcement states that effective November 1st KB will no longer backdate filing, even when they reject or are slow to file.

It sounds like in several municipalities there isn't much faith that the Clerks will be able to file immediately by November 1st, or even the same day, and my understanding is that court runners are still being blocked.

If they're going to end backdating, they could at least wait until the Clerks have demonstrated the ability to keep up over a long enough period, or once court runners are permitted to file again, so that we can receive immediate feedback. Does anyone know how quickly they've been filing civil documents on the e-filing website?

If they're concerned with the number of rejections, perhaps they'd be better served by centralizing filing rules and imposing only necessary rules, rather than law by plethora of announcements and whim? How many well-being seminars and conferences do we need before the Court considers the undue stress that they're putting on lawyers and litigants?

You will note that the "Criminal Defense Lawyers Association" is very specific and exclusive. It allows them to advocate loudly for their unique interests without jeopardizing other advocacy efforts on other matters (unlike the CBA Criminal Law Section).

Following this lead would mean that the private Family Law Bar (it would have to exclude government lawyers) may wish to set up a similar organization who's purpose is to advocate on behalf of the family bar. It could be that the time has come...

There should be a separate section of QB where the Justices deal only with family law matters, similar to PC. Otherwise, all QB Justices should be given extensive family law training before they're allowed to handle family law cases.

This time the QB Family Law Consulting Committee is seeking feedback regarding file management at the Court. They're looking for both criticism and praise of what does work well, and any suggestions about how to improve the process. I will pass along your feedback, or you're welcome to provide feedback directly to Teri Burant at tburant@emeryjamieson.com or 780-970-6291. Please provide feedback by February 2, 2022.

This time the QB Family Law Consulting Committee is seeking feedback regarding file management at the Court. They're looking for both criticism and praise of what does work well, and any suggestions about how to improve the process. I will pass along your feedback, or you're welcome to provide feedback directly to Teri Burant at tburant@emeryjamieson.com or 780-970-6291. Please provide feedback by February 2, 2022.

This time the QB Family Law Consulting Committee is seeking feedback regarding file management at the Court. They're looking for both criticism and praise of what does work well, and any suggestions about how to improve the process. I will pass along your feedback, or you're welcome to provide feedback directly to Teri Burant at tburant@emeryjamieson.com or 780-970-6291. Please provide feedback by February 2, 2022.

In England, couples can use £500 vouchers for mediation ($851 CAD). I imagine that has to be a lot less expensive than paying for additional judges, clerks, and security.

This time the QB Family Law Consulting Committee is seeking feedback regarding chambers. They're looking for both criticism and praise of what does work well, and any suggestions about how to improve the process. I will pass along your feedback, or you're welcome to provide feedback directly to Teri Burant at tburant@emeryjamieson.com or 780-970-6291. Please provide feedback by January 18, 2022.