Ontario woman could be forced to cancel August wedding due to ongoing court delays

An Ontario couple’s uncontested divorce case is taking so long in court that it’s interfering with the soon-to-be ex-wife’s next wedding.

As pandemic-related delays are tying up courts in some regions, Krista Norman's plan for an August wedding is slipping through her fingers.

“I just want to be with him,” Norman told CTV News in an interview. “It breaks my heart. I was hoping to say ‘I do’ to someone I love — and I’m so let down.”

Norman’s marriage with her soon-to-be ex-husband is still on the books in Ontario, long after the pair separated and jointly filed an uncontested divorce in January.

Records show it was approved by a government agency in February. The next stop is a Superior Court judge in a Newmarket, Ont. courthouse, which seemed like an easy step given that both parties have already agreed on all aspects of the case.

But as May came and went, Norman said she hadn’t heard back, she began to get worried.

“In theory, it was supposed to be done by June at the latest. That was not the case,” Norman said.

Her next marriage, planned at a resort in Cuba, won’t be a legal wedding unless she’s able to get some documents to the Cuban government, and that takes time too.

The delays in Norman’s case are very common, said lawyer Adam Slater who is representing the couple with ezDivorce. He said some courts like Brampton move uncontested divorces through in just weeks.

“Some courts, including the one in Newmarket, are extremely backed up still from COVID-19,” he said.

According to court file numbers, Toronto has processed about 2800 family court matters this year, Brampton about 1200, Milton about 450, Newmarket about 1000, Ottawa about 1000, Hamilton around 700, and London about 600.

Another issue is how many judges are there to handle the volume. The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada says that there are 3 vacancies out of 50 judges in Ontario’s Family Court, and 19 vacancies out of 205 positions in the Superior Court.

The Superior Court didn’t respond to a media inquiry from CTV News.

Delays are such an issue that the Ontario Bar Association has put out an unusual call for people’s experiences in the courts.

Their website is calling for people to submit their own timelines in a survey in the hope that the OBA can get enough data to track the problem.

President Kelly McDermott said there are plenty of people frustrated at the delays, which she also said are largely thanks to backlogs from the pandemic when many courts limited their operations or moved online.

“From our perspective, this is an all-hands-on-deck problem,” McDermott said.

“Chief Justice [Geoffrey] Morawetz has indicated that the situation can’t continue as it is and he is ready to undertake broad reforms. So there is political and judicial will,” she said.

Norman says she thinks more judges would allow the courts to tackle the delays — so she’s not waiting until death do them part.

“If we’re going to get out of this COVID lock of being backed up, then hire more. Our government needs to invest in its people,” she said.