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This report offers an examination of data on violence within families, highlighting how it may be a relevant factor to consider in a family law dispute. In a family law context, violence, abuse and neglect within families can have wide-ranging, long-term effects. Family and criminal courts may offer contrary rulings that confuse and frustrate matters and may put family members at risk. And ultimately, there are costs – both financial and human.

This research report recommends the adoption of universal family violence screening by family law practitioners. To support this recommendation, it begins by presenting a definition of family violence, then examines common family dynamics where violence is present and the impact of trauma in a family court litigant. Exploration of the relationship between family violence and family court and a discussion of the importance of screening in the family law context further supports the recommendations.

The report also provides an overview of the methodology used to identify and analyse family violence screening tools, identifies the differences between risk assessment and screening tools, and provides a list and summary of each of the family violence screening tools included in the review as well as an analysis of commonalities in structure, format, content, delivery, frequency of use and results/outcomes across the family violence screening tools.

The purpose of this report is to document, from a family law perspective, best practice options when domestic violence cases are making their way through multiple proceedings (criminal, civil, family, and child protection). The intention is to identify practices that can promote the safety of family members, particularly children, while also ensuring fair, due process.

This report examines the impact of the lack of access to legal aid in family law cases in Canada. The objective is to identify challenges that people face in accessing justice for family law disputes in the absence of legal aid, and to analyze the impacts of the lack of access to family legal aid on certain population groups (i.e., women, residents of rural and remote communities, people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, newcomers, LGBTQ2S+ people, official language minorities and visible minority groups). The following research questions were asked:

What policies govern how legal aid is granted in family law cases? Are cases involving family violence treated differently, and if so, how?

This fact sheet provides information on family violence. Family violence occurs when a person abuses someone in their family. It can happen to anyone - both children and adults. Family violence can be words, acts or even not giving someone the care they need.

Family violence, including child maltreatment, intimate partner violence (IPV) and children's exposure to IPV, can have serious and lasting impacts on physical and mental health. The Public Health Agency of Canada's Family Violence Prevention Investment is a national grants and contributions program focused on preventing and reducing the health impacts of family violence.

This infographic, entitled Family Violence in Canada, presents results from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey and General Social Survey on victimization. Findings cover the prevalence of both police-reported and self-reported family and spousal violence in Canada.

This paper explores the issues that arise in child protection proceedings involving family violence, where there are concurrent family and/or criminal proceedings. A particular focus is on issues in concurrent proceedings in cases involving intimate partner violence, though there is some discussion of child abuse cases, especially those involving emotional and other child abuse issues arising in the context of high-conflict separations. We discuss and compare the social and legal contexts of these different proceedings, offer analysis of both legal and professional practice concerns that concurrent proceedings create, and conclude by offering suggestions about promising practices to improve processes and outcomes for children in these challenging cases. These cases are inevitably complex and difficult for parents, children, professionals and the justice system.

In January 2011, federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) Deputy Ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety approved the creation of a joint family and criminal Ad Hoc Working Group on Family Violence to examine how the family, child protection, and criminal sectors of the justice system interact in relation to family violence. Representatives from all Canadian jurisdictions collaborated in the development of this report which identifies some of the challenges facing litigants grappling with family violence and simultaneously navigating different sectors of the justice system. This report also highlights selected tools, protocols, and practices that have been implemented to address these issues in Canada or elsewhere. This report is intended for justice system professionals and those working within the criminal justice, family justice and child protection systems.

This report highlights some key findings of the 2018 National Family Law surveys of family law professionals in Canada. The data provide insights into the experiences, practices, and issues among legal professionals working in the Canadian family justice system. Since 1998, the Department of Justice Canada (Justice Canada) has conducted biennial surveys of lawyers and judges working in family law in Canada. These surveys aim to collect information on the characteristics of their family law cases, and to obtain feedback on family law issues based on their knowledge and expertise.