In October 2026, the Department of Justice Canada released its research brief, “Access to Justice and Family Justice Services: Results from the 2025 National Family Law Survey of Legal Advisers and Family Justice Professionals.” Conducted online between January and March 2025, the survey gathered the experiences of legal advisers and, for the first time, other family justice professionals such as mediators, arbitrators, and parenting coordinators. It focused on how certain 2021 amendments to the Divorce Act are working in practice
Separation and divorce can raise legal issues that do not always need to be settled in court. Family justice services, including mediation, parenting education programs, and child support calculation and recalculation services, offer families other ways of addressing these issues. The 2021 amendments require legal advisers to inform clients about available family justice services and, where appropriate, encourage them to attempt to resolve their family law matters through family dispute resolution processes.
Most respondents reported that family justice services increase access to justice. Family justice professionals were especially likely to report that these services reduce conflict and lead to better outcomes for children. Among legal advisers, 61% reported that family justice services increase access to justice for most of their clients, while 53% said the services reduce the need for court intervention and 52% said they help resolve disputed issues. Among family justice professionals, the corresponding figures were 73%, 76%, and 78%.
The survey also found that 38% of legal advisers more consistently provide information about available family justice services since the amendments came into force. More than four in five respondents reported that clients obtain information about these services directly from them.
Other changes, including expanded authority for provincial child support services to calculate and recalculate child support and the option of proceedings in either official language, had not yet been fully implemented across the country when the survey was conducted. The research brief also cautions that respondents were not a representative sample, so the results should not be generalized to all family law professionals in Canada. The sample included 178 legal advisers and 97 family justice professionals, with respondents disproportionately concentrated in the Prairies and among experienced professionals who regularly handle family law matters.
For more information, read the full research brief on the Department of Justice Canada website.