The Court in Streifel v. Forcier 2020 BCSC 1346 considered the wife’s application to set aside a consent order, which provided that the parties’ family law trial would be adjourned and that a med/arb would take place with a specified arbitrator.
Shortly after agreeing to the order, the wife fired her lawyer and retained new counsel, who cited various grounds to set aside the order including fraud, abuse of process, unconscionability, undue influence, economic duress, material non-disclosure, irreparable harm, procedural fairness, and balance of convenience. She also asserted that her former counsel entered into the consent order without explaining the details to her and without her consent.
The court refused to set aside the consent order noting that the wife had engaged in ongoing behaviour that contributed to the delay of the family law matter by refusing to attend multiple mandatory judicial settlement conferences; failing to attend multiple appointments for her examination for discovery, failing to attend a court hearing and a trial management conference, ignoring correspondence from her husband’s counsel, and she had interfered with the court ordered sale of the family home.
The Court noted that it was open to the wife to bring an application to adjourn the med/arb before the arbitrator.
Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang