In This Issue
Sept. 2019 Update
CLE's and events attended
Sponsorships
Court Victories
Blog Posts
Advocate Daily Articles
September 3, 2019
Greetings!

Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre is pleased to provide you with our eNewsletter.   
25 Bowring Walk
Toronto, Ontario Canada M3H 5Z8 
Phone: 416-635-9264
Fax: 416-635-5468
We hope that our clients, former clients, colleagues, friends and others who have signed on to receive our newsletters will enjoy perusing this newsletter. (In case we have inadvertently intruded upon you, we apologize. You can easily opt out below.)  
Jenny Kirshen Maternity Leave
Associate Counsel, Jenny Kirshen, will be on maternity leave for child #2, effective the end of September. Her files are to be assumed by other firm lawyers. We wish Jenny all the best in this exciting time of her life and we look forward to her return to work later in 2020.
New Lawyer: Jessica Cohen
We are pleased to welcome (as at 12 September 2019) to the firm Ms Jessica Cohen. Jessica was called to the Bar in 2014; she joins us following her years of experience at a highly regarded Oshawa firm. Her Masters degree in psychology along with her extensive child protection and child custody litigation background will surely make a huge contribution to the firm's ability to conduct complex matters affecting children. Profile
New staff addition: Sheryl Huff
We are also very pleased to welcome to our support staff, Ms Sheryl Huff. Sheryl Huff graduated from the Georgian College Law Clerk Program with honours. She has a wealth of earlier experience in customer service. Sheryl has an infectious enthusiasm for all legal tasks.
Consultation
Our Consultation process is a very in depth examination and analysis of the challenges that the prospective client faces. For those who already have ongoing cases, we prefer to have at hand the entire set of pleadings for the case (ie. the "Continuing Record"). A staff member takes typed notes during the consultation, after which the staff member and Gene C. Colman refine the document into a comprehensive memorandum setting out future strategy and important tasks requiring completion. For a fuller description, see: https://www.complexfamilylaw.com/Consultation-Procedure.shtml
Continuing Legal Education is an important component of our professional lives. We endeavour to keep up with the law.  Attendees report the highlights to the rest of our team at our regular firm lunches.  Here is a sample of some courses that
our lawyers have either recently attended or will attend soon:

Gene C. Colman:

  • 21 August 2019: "I Don't Want to Go! What's a Parenting Coordinator to Do?" Association of Family & Conciliation Courts
Gloria Antwi (upcoming):

  • 5 September 2019: Social Media Evidence, North York Education Committee
  • 4 October 2019: Bread and Butter Issues in Family Law, Ontario Bar Association
  • 22 October 2019: Conduct of the Family Law Motion, The Advocates' Society


Jenny Kirshen

  • 14 June 2019 - Review and Refresh Your Editing Skills: Grammar Booster for Lawyers: Part 2, Law Society of Ontario


Kulbir Rehal (upcoming)

  • 27 September 2019: Pension and Retirement Assets on Relationship Breakdown, Osgoode Hall Law School Professional Development
  • 12 November 2019: Recent Developments in Advanced Issues in Child and Spousal Support, Osgoode Hall Law School Professional Development

Sponsorships:
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The Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre hosted a breakfast meeting at Milk N Honey Restaurant on 19 August 2019 to introduce Senior Attorney, Rachel Weiser, of Shurat HaDin - The Israel Law Center. Ms Weiser described the important work that Shurat HaDin does each and every day to combat terror both in Israel and world wide. Discussions were also held with respect to the steps that Ontario lawyers acting in conjunction with Shurat HaDin might take to combat terror. Legal measures, believe it or not, can have a salutary effect to reduce terrorism. Make terrorists and those who facilitate them accountable for their actions.
On 22 March 2019 (sorry for the late posting) the Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre was pleased to co-sponsor the 17th Annual International Women's Day Gala hosted by the Punjabi Community Health Services in Brampton, Ontario. PCHS is a not-for-profit, charitable organization that aims to improve quality of life, by providing culturally appropriate services to diverse communities. Two of our lawyers attended: Kulbir Rehal and Gloria Antwi. They report that it was a great program hearing from some powerful, diverse women in various fields. 
Recent Firm Court Victories:
We successfully challenged a children's aid society on behalf of the firm's exemplary foster parent clients. The decision is on line at CanLii. The Advocate Daily article about this case can be accessed below.

We successfully achieved six out of fourteen nights for a great dad client after we presented trial evidence from a leading social scientist with reference to the importance of equal shared parenting.The Advocate Daily article about this case can be accessed below.
There is indeed a better way to achieve resolutions more quickly and at a lower cost. It just requires a sea change in the way we lawyers do things. Read More.

Parents' decisions may not always trump children's best interests when it comes to preserving ties with a loving grandparent. In this case, the court actually intervened. A victory for grandchildren everywhere; a victory for loving grandparents. Read More

The U.S.A. has changed its tax laws when it comes to spousal support. Spousal support payments are no longer tax deductible to U.S. payors. This development has implications for support calculation where Canadian residents receive spousal support from American payors. Read More

It is so important to preserve, enhance and expand parental/child bonds. The Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court gets it right in this interim parenting time motion, even though the court would not (to Gene C. Colman's disappointment) adopt an equal shared parenting presumption as a matter of law. Read More .

"Best Interests" is the only focus for future judicial determination of parenting time and parenting decision making. Will Canada's new Bill C-78 remove incentives for parents to bad mouth the other and just focus on the kids? Read More
Psychologist’s testimony leads to greater access for father
Sometimes it might be valuable to bring in expert social science testimony. The Colman firm did just that in one case and it reaped dividends. Read More
The Child and Family Services Review Board has some rather amazing powers that might be particularly helpful to some foster parents who believe that they have been unfairly treated by a children's aid society. Two of the Colman firm's clients benefited from a prompt and fair hearing before this Board. Read More
Sincerely,

Gene C. Colman
Gene C. Colman Family Law Centre