Family lawyers say they are using tech to make the process faster, cleaner, and more affordable
Legal technology can help lawyers and clients by making legal processes cheaper, shorter, more convenient, and less stressful. According to lawyers and tech innovators, family law is one area where this transformation has been most apparent.
Technology is reshaping how family law is practised in Canada, from gathering and presenting evidence to managing correspondence between former spouses and calculating spousal or child support.
One of the most significant benefits of legal tech in family law is the ability to gather evidence more easily. Since much of the communication between former partners happens via text or phone, that correspondence is now easier to document, says Christine Ashbourne, a family lawyer at Torkin Manes LLP.
She says technology facilitates evidence gathering, which can shorten or simplify the court process.
Erin Chaiton-Murray
Erin Chaiton-Murray, a partner at family law boutique Murray Lawson LLP, says technology is benefiting family lawyers perhaps even more than those practising in other areas of law. Family law clients often rely on electronic communication with former spouses, making accessing records of their interactions easier.
“There are multiple apps you can use to essentially download all of the text communication from a phone between your client and their former spouse. You can easily gather all of the texts in preparation for a trial or to use as evidence in their case,” Chaiton-Murray says.
Tali Green, CEO of legal tech platform Goodfact, which builds case chronologies for litigators, says family law was one of her primary focus areas when developing tools to extract and organize documentation.
She says that family law differs from other areas because it’s documentation-heavy. She adds that family law consistently involves managing large volumes of material – emails, text messages, social media posts, financial records, medical documents, etc.
“There needs to be some way for these lawyers to make sense of all that and put it all into some coherent order because family law is all about what happened, who’s responsible for what, who said what,” she says.
Martha McCarthy
Martha McCarthy, founding partner of McCarthy Hansen & Company LLP, says technology has also revolutionized how evidence is presented in court. Despite some resistance to virtual trials, she believes the advantages are undeniable.
“Nobody talks about how much quieter the courtroom is when there is no one shuffling paper or how much quicker the process is because you are not walking around the courtroom with three copies of each document that you’re showing a witness,” she says.
McCarthy adds that electronic trials have made the practice more sustainable, significantly reducing the need for printing and photocopying.
Meanwhile, while technology can streamline processes, it has not reduced the emotional tension often present in family law.
She says that the professionalism of counsel is still the most important factor in reducing the tensions in the courtroom, and the parties’ circumstances still determine how heated the atmosphere gets. “It’s about the issues between the parties. It’s about the circumstances of the relationship; it’s not really about physical presence in the courtroom,” McCarthy says.
Technology also has downsides, and Ashbourne says texting and instant messaging apps have led to a decline in civility between separating partners.
“People write things so quickly. Everybody communicates via text, emails, or social media … and often forget that what they write can be memorialized and potentially seen by a judge one day,” she says.
“There have been many positive developments, but the darker side [of the use of technology] is that people are not always as civil as they should be in their communications,” she adds.
McCarthy and Chaiton-Murray both say that courts and lawyers often recommend using apps designed for co-parenting communication to help address civility.
Chaiton-Murray says these apps streamline exchanges and give lawyers easier access to records when needed. Some also include built-in filters to flag hostile language.
“If the tone is negative or inappropriate, it flags the communication and encourages the user to reframe or to rewrite,” she says.
While she says the apps are not perfect, she sees a clear benefit in having a single, dedicated channel for communication with a former spouse. “I think that’s helpful for people who maybe don’t want their personal email or text messages clogged up with communication from their former spouse,” she says.
McCarthy says the apps can reduce anxiety for people who dread interacting with their former partner.
“They’re mostly designed for high-conflict people – people who are fighting all the time. But they’re also good for people who are maybe anxious or get stressed out by the communication,” she says.
They also benefit individuals with a history of inappropriate or abusive communication.
“They’re good for people who are badly behaved or abusive to their former spouse, but only if no one’s watching,” she says, adding that these apps usually include fail-safe features that prevent users from deleting messages.
The apps also provide accountability.
“There’s a permanent record of how many times you ask the person to pay for the skating lessons for the child. Sometimes, you are not fighting, but unless you send the bill four times, the other person never pays for the kid’s skating lessons,” McCarthy explains.
Legal technology has improved both efficiency and accessibility – particularly over the past five years, says Chaiton-Murray.
“That’s a big difference from how a lot of legal practice – certainly family law – used to be. Everything was very paper-heavy,” she explains.
The ability to meet clients and attend court virtually, combined with electronic records and digital signatures, has made the process more accessible. “You can now have a quick meeting with your lawyer without taking half of your day to come into the office just to sign a document,” she says.
Clients no longer have to find and deliver physical copies for evidence collection. “Now, clients can collect and share documents electronically, and we can easily review and assemble evidence that way,” she says.
Lindsey Mazza
These digital changes are also helping clients save money, says Lindsey Mazza, a former family lawyer turned motivational speaker.
Virtual court attendance can significantly cut costs for parents juggling work and childcare.
“Lawyers charge at an hourly rate, so if I’m attending court in person and I’m stuck on a list for eight hours, clients are paying for a full day,” she explains. “But when you’re attending virtually, you’re only billing for the time you’re actually on screen. So it’s costing people a fraction of the money.”
She adds that legal software can reduce billable hours through automation. Built-in support calculators allow lawyers to plug in scenarios and get real-time results. Drafting contracts is also quicker with pre-generated clauses that lawyers can tailor to client needs.
“Instead of building a 20-page contract from scratch, lawyers can select from a range of pre-generated clauses and tailor them to the client’s needs,” she says. “It saves the lawyer time – and
