In British Columbia we have a requirement for family law professionals to assess for family violence. We don't have a requirement to screen, but we have this order that we're supposed to assess and then make recommendations based on that. There is no mandatory process to do that, so that's pretty much left up to individual lawyers to assess in the manner they think is appropriate, including getting training if they think that is appropriate. Many people don't.
There's not a requirement to screen using an accredited tool, which is what was proposed by NAWL. There are a number of tools across the country in development. There are relatively few, I think, that are specific to law. A lot of them have been developed in other areas. I understand that there is one being developed with the CBA, and I believe Luke's Place is also working on trying to take some of the best practices and come up with a tool that can be used. Right now, in B.C., we don't have a standard tool.
I think that, in terms of being able to understand family violence, it is important that training of some description happen across the board, so that it happens with lawyers who are going to be meeting with clients and it happens with mediators. Mediators in B.C. are required to have family violence training. They are the group that is actually required to have some training. You then start to have questions about who is doing the screening, whether the mediator's going to do it or whether the mediator relies on the lawyer's assessment and just takes that as good enough, in cases where people are represented. There's not very much standardization in B.C. Some direction and clarity on that would actually be very helpful, as well as making sure it actually happens.