John-Paul Boyd Arbitration Chambers uses technology to streamline our processes and resolve family law disputes as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Day-to-day communication occurs largely by email, and documents are shared in electronic form through a secure client portal. Although we hold meetings, conferences and hearings in person when useful and necessary, most of our meetings are held remotely, by videoconference, through software that is easy to use, reliable and free.
The technology we use allows us to serve clients throughout all of Alberta and British Columbia, even in rural and remote areas where lawyers are few and far between. This approach also lets us resolve disputes between people who live in different cities, in different provinces, and in different time zones.
It’s true that difficult meetings and hearings sometimes work better in person. But with an experienced family law lawyer, managing mediation and arbitration by videoconference is a safe, efficient, and sometimes necessary option.
an effective alternative to court
As the world responded to COVID-19, the governments of Alberta and British Columbia restricted access to the courts. This was a sensible reaction, from a public health perspective, but these decisions only aggravated the problems accessing the courts most Canadians already experienced, before the pandemic.
Limiting access to the courthouse didn’t make people’s legal problems go away. While disputes between companies, the people involved in a car accident and neighbours who disagree about a property line could probably wait, family law disputes usually could not. Especially when a dispute involved the health and wellbeing of children, parenting schedules or the payment of support.
Mediation and arbitration are common alternatives to litigation in both Alberta and British Columbia, and were increasingly relied upon as the doors of the courthouse began to close. And when people could no longer meet in person, these processes flourished through videoconferencing technologies like Teams, WebEx, Zoom and even FaceTime. No matter what the average lawyer may have thought about videoconferencing before the pandemic, they had likely become an expert user of that technology by the time the public health emergency wrapped up.
The agreements produced through mediation, and the orders and awards produced through arbitration, are accepted and routinely enforced by the courts in Alberta and British Columbia, whether they’re the product of meetings and hearings held in-person or by videoconference. The courts rarely interfere with fairly negotiated agreements, or with awards and orders that are the product of impartial decision-making processes.
a speedy alternative to court
When family law disputes go to court, the people involved often find themselves making or responding to applications for orders long before they get to trial. These applications are usually about urgent problems that can’t wait until trial to be resolved, and often concern children’s safety and wellbeing, the payment of child support, developing or modifying parenting schedules, and the payment of spousal support.
Before the pandemic, applications like these would normally take a month or two to be heard by a judge, or longer in more complicated circumstances. This sort of routine delay, before access to the courts was restricted, usually resulted from the busyness of the court’s schedule and the challenges of dealing with so many applications and so many families without enough judges.
Urgent problems like these can often be resolved more quickly through mediation and arbitration, especially when meetings and hearings are held by videoconference, for two reasons. First, meetings and hearings can be scheduled as soon as the parties and their lawyers are available, with no need to wait on scarce court resources. Second, mediators and arbitrators generally work longer hours than those provided in the short court day, and will often make themselves available to deal with urgent matters after normal business hours and on weekends.
a flexible alternative to court
Problems that are resolved through the courts are managed by the rules of court, and no one, including judges, has much discretion to avoid litigation processes that are unnecessary, or to shape those processes to better suit the needs and budgets of different families.
In mediation and arbitration, fairness and efficiency are more important than rules that have been designed to accommodate every kind of person in every kind of legal dispute. Mediation and arbitration processes can be altered and adapted to suit the particular circumstances of each family as well as the importance, value and complexity of the particular issues a family needs to resolve. (The Arbitration Procedure page describes many of the procedural options available for the arbitration of family law disputes.)
what you need to participate
First, you need a reasonably good internet connection to participate in a remote meeting, conference or hearing. Not a great connection, just a reasonably good one. And if you’re reading this online, you’ve got that.
Second, you need a computer with a microphone and a video camera. Your smartphone has those things built in, and so do most laptop computers and many desktop computers. If your computer doesn’t include a microphone and video camera, you can buy a pretty good webcam that includes a microphone for less than $75 from Amazon or Staples. Logitech is a reliable brand.
guidelines for lawyers
While remote mediation meetings and arbitration hearings are run in much the same way as hearings conducted in person, there are a few extra steps that must be taken to ensure the reliability of the internet connection, ease of access to documents and exhibits, and the integrity of any oral evidence that is given.
If you are a lawyer and your meeting or hearing will be held by videoconference, download our guidelines for remote mediation meetings and our guidelines for remote arbitration hearings.