Why Divorce Cases Involving Allegations Of Abuse Still Confound Family Courts

Across Canada, as well as the U.S., family court is a tangled, vastly under-resourced jungle that includes hundreds of lawyers, judges, child-protection workers and custody assessors. It’s a system that has long struggled to deal with cases that involve allegations of domestic violence, especially when determining custody and access. That’s in part due to a culture rife with sexist stereotypes that won’t acknowledge the high rates of domestic violence in divorcing couples, or the gender-based reality of that abuse. A new law in Canada aims to distinguish between bitter splits and truly dangerous ones— and get women and children out of harm’s way.  Read more here.