Lawyers begin training program for domestic violence cases

By Michael Boriero - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Lawyers begin training program for domestic violence cases
Claudine Simon, creator of the training program (Photo : Courtesy)

There is a growing need to train family lawyers in Quebec to better prepare and handle domestic violence cases as the number of victims continues to increase in the province.
Juripop, a non-profit organization that, according to its website, develops legal information projects and provides access to low-cost legal services, began its domestic violence training program last week after nearly two years of consultations with local organizations.
Justine Fortin, a lawyer at Juripop and project manager for the domestic violence initiative, told The Record that the program runs until May 2021. There will be four live online video sessions in total. Nearly 300 lawyers across the province attended the first lesson.
“What we hope is that we will have a list of lawyers in the province with this specific expertise in dealing with domestic violence,” said Fortin. “The training is free because of this mandate we had from the transparency committee.”
The Quebec government and its transparency committee tabbed Juripop with the task of educating lawyers on how to deal with sensitive cases like domestic violence. Fortin said the judicial system tends to put these cases in a box, ignoring the greater context.
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