Alberta family lawyer offering a simpler, friendlier way to divorce
An Edmonton lawyer is paving the way for a more streamlined, faster, cheaper and more co-operative model of divorce. The approach, being offered as a pilot project in Alberta, uses one lawyer jointly for the couple.
It’s the first time this method has been offered in Canada — in fact, it’s believed to be a first for all of North America.
Instead of having each person retain their own lawyer and then battle it out in court, this process has the two people meet with one lawyer together and work out a divorce agreement that works for everyone.
“The dominant thinking in the movies and TV is … you get that big shark and you go (to war), but ultimately family law is about families,” said Melissa Bourgeois with One Family Law.
“Families kind of band together in days like today, where we don’t actually want to fight. Life has been hard enough,” she said.
Bourgeois saw the one-couple, one-lawyer, one-fee model work in the U.K. and wanted to offer it in Canada. In 2020, she presented her proposal to the Law Society of Alberta, and was given the green light to run it at as a pilot project.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” Bourgeois said. “It’s a really big shift in thinking. So there’s lots of risks associated to how we could go about this in a way. But there’s (also) an increasing risk of access to justice because the courthouses are overloaded, lawyers are overworked and tired and we have huge caseloads and we’re trying to assist people in that traditional system but there’s a limit.”
While traditional divorce proceedings can cost tens of thousands of dollars per person and last months (subject to court delays and backlogs), the one-lawyer model costs $5,000 total and takes six weeks.
“People don’t have the resources they used to have,
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