Budget cuts hit family court

April 1, 2009

While the province tightens its purse strings, the family court will see one of its services eliminated as part of the budget cuts.

Bob Ross is a family court social worker in Miramichi whose job will disappear as of April 20 when legal aid takes over his duties.

The social workers focus on custody issues and work on scheduling time so both parents have access to their children in custody dispute cases, he said.

"We try to get the parents to focus on the children."

Ross has worked for the Justice Department in various roles for 45 years and although he admitted a bias, he thought the social workers were effective in mediating custody cases.

"We seem to think it would be more beneficial to clients than a court date."

When there is a conflict between divorced parents, the mediators step in and work to resolve issues for the benefit of everyone involved.

"We felt that it was an effective concept. It's been here for a long time and didn't run into a lot of opposition that I know of," he said.

Ross said the mediation service benefited both parents and although it sometimes appeared to be lopsided, the focus was to be fair and even.

"Street perceptions are not always the way things work."

Justice and Consumer Affairs Department spokesperson Elaine Bell said the cuts to the social workers didn't reflect the quality of the work they did and was a budgetary decision as the government looked for places to cut back.

"This is the only one that wouldn't completely cripple the administration of court services."

Once the change is made people would have formerly needed the social workers' service will go directly through legal aid instead, she said.

"The only thing is the counselling and mediation service will no longer be attached to government."

Bell said the province will try to keep as many of the affected employees as possible and move them into different departments, she said.

"We're going to make every effort to redeploy the affected employees within government."

Although she wasn't sure how the change would affect the speed of cases going through the system, Bell said it is too early to tell and the department will release its budget estimates later in the legislative session.

"We'll be able to get into those specifics at that point."

Counselling and mediation services are available in the private sector for anyone who wants to use them, she said.

"They are certainly available in eight judicial districts where court social workers formerly delivered those services.

Shelly Williams is a former lawyer who said the old system worked well because issues can sometimes be resolved through mediation instead of court.

"It's going to add further pressure to the courts."

The family court system is supposed to be about the best interests of the child who won't be served by the pending changes, she said.

"I just find it appalling because the system, as it exists, has worked very well."