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By Tiffany Goodwein

Family lawyers seeing an uptick in custody disputes amid COVID-19

Jul 24, 2020 | 12:24 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB- With the stress of the pandemic, coupled with court closures and subsequent backlogs, it’s been a busy time for family lawyers. Family lawyer Jonathan Tieman says early on in the pandemic, most family lawyers saw a reduction in work due to the court closures, but since the courts reopened in June, the caseload has picked up.

Tieman says while parents, for the most part, have stepped up to challenge and adjusted their parenting schedules, disputes relating to custody and the pandemic are still prevalent.

“A lot of the issues we have seen in family files is one parent unilaterally withholding children from the other parent due to concerns either that the other parent isn’t appropriately self-isolating or implementing the proper COVID-19 practices. The other area where we had a lot of difficulties was when one parent had immunocompromised issues or had people in their household with immunocompromised issues, and that resulted in sometimes that parent not allowing the child to come to their house, or not allowing the child to leave their house, to go to the other parent’s house,” he said

Family court proceedings have resumed in Medicine Hat, through virtual methods, but parents are still advised to resolve issues through mediation and arbitration.

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While it may be challenging to figure out a custody arrangement during the pandemic, Tiemen says it is important for parents to be patient, creative, and flexible when it comes to resolving any custody issues.

” I always recommend to parents that you have to look at the situation from the other parent’s point of view as well, reflect on that and when you engage in a course of action think about how you would want the other parent to respond to that if you were on the other side of the aisle,” he said.