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| Michelle Lomazzo |
The FLSP scope
The FLSP scope approved by convocation includes process navigation, completing applications for joint and uncontested divorces (without property or corollary relief), preparing and arguing motions to change child support based on straightforward income (excluding those that include special and extraordinary expenses), responding to family responsibility enforcement proceedings, filing family law agreements and preparing change-of-name applications. See the details here on the law society’s dedicated FLSP webpage.
Any expansion of paralegal scope in family law matters will require an incremental approach. The Law Society of Ontario has undertaken to conduct a review of the FLSP within three years of its implementation to determine its impact on access to justice.
FLSP program at Fanshawe College
Fanshawe College is the only college offering the FLSP program, in partnership with the LSO. The program will be offered in English and French, with both a full-time and part-time option. The full-time program will run twice a year, with starts in January and September, and is expected to be approximately four months long. The part-time program is estimated to take between one to two years to complete, depending on one’s time commitment to the program.
The program includes approximately 100 competencies in seven areas:
1. ethics and professional responsibility;
2. knowledge of the law;
3. substantive family law;
4. filing domestic contracts;
5. alternative dispute resolution;
6. litigation process; and
7. practice management issues.
2. knowledge of the law;
3. substantive family law;
4. filing domestic contracts;
5. alternative dispute resolution;
6. litigation process; and
7. practice management issues.
The program includes a 40-hour in-person field placement. Fanshawe will also administer the FLSP final examination. The testing will take place in person at a location close to the learner. Registration for the program will open in August 2024. Fanshawe’s tuition for the FLSP program is expected to be around $2,300. More information about the FLSP program will be available on the Fanshawe College website in the coming days.
Graduates of the FLSP program will need to apply to the law society to be permitted to provide family legal services as an FLSP. More information about the steps involved will be available in the coming months on the LSO’s webpage.
As many of you know, the judiciary decides who can appear in family law court and on what motions by virtue of rule 4(1) of the Family Law Rules. The judiciary has agreed to allow paralegals to argue enforcement motions and child-support change motions (within scope) before the family courts. A recent LSO survey noted that 80 per cent of the public said they would hire a paralegal licensed in the field to represent them in family law matters. The clients they will serve are the self-represented; those who would not likely retain a lawyer. This advocacy enhances access to justice. If you’re interested, register for the program and obtain your FLSP licence!
Michelle Lomazzo was elected a paralegal bencher at the Law Society of Ontario in 2019. She has worked as an injured worker advocate for several years in Windsor, Ont. Through her legal services practice, Lomazzo Workers Compensation Appeals Professional Corporation, she specializes in workers compensation appeals before the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and regularly appears before the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT).
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