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Richmond family court found guilty of creating family stress

Lack of judges, poor signage making already bad situations worse for parents

A severe shortage of judges in Richmond is piling more stress onto families who are already emotionally drained by a creaking court system.

Thats the scathing verdict from the Richmond Family and Youth Court Committee, which has appealed to B.C.s Attorney General office for more than the two full-time judges assigned to the family court the lowest for any Lower Mainland municipality.

The 2011 annual report from the voluntary committee which has a B.C. government mandate to observe the court experience and report on any issues details a number of immediate improvements that could be made to enhance the experience of people attending family court, often their first step inside a courthouse.

However, after a monthly visit to Richmond Provincial Court on Elmbridge Way by each of the 15-member committee, it was clear the only way to genuinely improve the interaction was to increase the number of judges.

The fact that the number of full-time judges has been reduced, from what I think was six, has to have an impact on the receiving end, said Theresa Vossa, past chair of the court committee and a family counsellor for Touchstone Family Association.

(Families) often come to court on a date they were given some time ago, only to be told its been put off, and they will have to go through the whole process again because something else has taken precedence for the judge in question.

People go there thinking theyre going to have it dealt with that day; theyve probably been preparing themselves for a while for that day. It really is so emotionally draining for them.

And when the delays inevitably occur, lawyers still need to be paid for their time, added Vossa, which kick-starts a vicious cycle of events leading to even more delays.

Not everyone can afford to keep paying lawyers lawyers that many can barely afford in the first place, she said.

When they cant afford it, they self represent and, because they dont know the system, it slows everything down even more. We witness this all the time.

The committees report has been sent, like every other year, to the B.C. Attorney Generals office. However, Vossa is suspect about whether the reports ever get looked at, as they rarely receive any feedback on the recommendations.

Richmond city council, on the other hand, has agreed to back up the committees appeal for more judges and will write to the Attorney Generals office in due course.

Meanwhile, a number of issues identified by the committee are already in the process of being rectified in a bid to improve the publics experience of the family court.

The City of Richmond owns the courthouse building and, thanks to the involvement of Coun. Evelina Halsey-Brandt, there looks set to be a new pamphlet rack, a baby-change table in the mens washroom and better signage in the lobby.

For the average person, going to court is a scary thing, said Vossa. There is a fear factor for these people and if you cant find your way around, it only makes things worse.

I was told (by the court) there was no money to fix these issues, but it is a city-owned building, and when I brought this forward to city council, they took care of it.

A meeting will now take place Thursday between the committee, the court manager and the city to put the changes into place at the citys expense.

Halsey-Brandt acknowledged the lack of signage is a problem at the court and was happy to move things along as quick as possible. The committee approached the court manager, but the court has more important things to worry about, case loads for one thing, she said.

Im in a position to cut through the red tape, and I was able to facilitate because this is for our citizens whore having to go through the family court system.

I know the system well and I have the contacts, so Im happy to help speed things up. Sometimes at government level we spend too much time on the tiny things.

Halsey-Brandt also hailed the sterling work of the committees volunteers, adding, We have a very active court committee and their observations are not superficial, they are very in-depth.

The B.C. Attorney Generals office was preparing a response to the committees report, but did not get back to the News by press time.