Shelagh Kinney Family Mediator Vancouver and Fort St John BC
BC Parenting Coordination in British Columbia child custody cases is an emerging alternative BC family law dispute resolution process in which a BC lawyer or British Columbia mental health professional with BC mediation training and experience assists BC parents to implement their parenting plan by facilitating the resolution of their disputes in a timely manner, educating parents about children’s needs and, with prior approval of the parties and/or the court, making decisions within the scope of the court order or appointment contract.
BC Parenting coordination may be of assistance in “high conflict” cases dealing with BC child custody related issues where parents have demonstrated a chronic inability to resolve conflicts about the children and bring frequent contested court applications regarding BC parenting issues.
Parenting coordination is not therapy or counseling for any family member, nor a formal custody evaluation or assessment. Although the Parenting Coordinator (“PC”) may act as a mediator to try to assist the parents to reach agreement on issues, parenting coordination is not only mediation as the PC will also have the ability to make certain decisions if the parties do not agree. The PC is appointed for a defined term, and the fees for the PCs services will be allocated between the parents by agreement or order.
Some examples of parental disputes settled by a PC include:
1. parenting time schedules, including regular access, holidays and vacations, temporary variations for special events, travel and passport arrangements;
2. a child’s recreational activities;
3. education (tutoring, summer school, school choice) or daycare;
4. health care (medical/dental);
5. child rearing issues ( bedtimes, alterations of the child’s appearance such as haircuts and piercings);
6. sharing of special or extraordinary expenses for the children; and
7. forms of communications between parents, including monitoring of emails and other correspondence by the PC if these have been an issue.
Parenting coordination is relatively new in British Columbia. In the United States, several states have statutes authorizing the appointment of PCs, including Oregon, California, Texas, and, most recently, Florida. Although there is currently no statutory authority in British Columbia governing parenting coordination, there have been several reported cases in which PCs have been appointed by a Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
For the past few years, a group of British Columbia family law lawyers and mental health professionals have been working towards establishing parenting coordination as a new legal mechanism in BC to deal with the unique issues facing high-conflict parents, including providing a roster of PCs under the BC Parenting Coordinators Roster Society.
Lorne MacLean recently defined the rules in BC Supreme Court that should apply to the terms of a parenting coordination contract and you should be aware of what the parenting coordinator can and cannot do. MacLean also warns you need to ensure the Court does not abdicate its’ duty to protect children and not allow one parent to keep the fight over children alive through PC involvement.
If you have any questions on Parenting Coordination please call Shelagh Kinney, family mediator of our offices at 604-602-9000 who has taken the Parenting Coordinator training and courses related to this area from Joan Kelly as well as arbitration training.
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