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Lawyer Melissa Bourgeois of One Family Law, in Edmonton, on Sept. 12.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Edmonton lawyer Melissa Bourgeois had been practising family law for more than a decade when she had what she calls her “light bulb moment.”
After years of helping couples navigate amicable divorces – ones where spouses aren’t actively fighting, but simply choosing to go their separate ways – Ms. Bourgeois heard about a unique legal service being offered in Britain. There, low-conflict separating couples were being offered the opportunity to hire just one lawyer to act for both parties.
The concept at the time was untested in Canada, where conflict-of-interest rules have traditionally dictated that each divorcing spouse must retain their own lawyer, Ms. Bourgeois said.
But she suspected it could work here, too.
“It just seemed to me really brilliant,” she said. “I think what most couples today
Perhaps you have heard the great debate in the news media about the possible reimbursement and restitution for all African-People who have ancestors who were slaves. The last clause of the eighth section of the first article of the plan into account authorizes the nationwide legislature “to make all laws which shall be ESSENTIAL and PROPER for carrying into execution THE POWERS by that Structure vested within the authorities of the United States, or in any division or officer thereof”; and the second clause of the sixth article declares, “that the Structure and the laws of the United States made IN PURSUANCE THEREOF, and the treaties made by their authority shall be the SUPREME LAW of the land, any factor in the constitution or laws of any State on the contrary however.