Peace bond

Our client's wife kicked him out of their home and started divorce proceedings. Almost immediately, she began making claims to the police about our client's apparently abusive behaviour against her, their young son, and her other children. When the police refused to lay charges, she went to a justice of the peace and started "peace bond" proceedings against our client in order to put our client on special conditions. In order to obtain a peace bond, she only needed to prove that she had a reasonable fear for her physical or psychological safety. The Crown Attorney's office intervened and took over the case on her behalf.

While we were waiting for our peace bond hearing, our client's ex-wife accused his father of criminal harassment and he was charged with a criminal offence. We referred his father to a trusted colleague from another law firm.

Working with our client, his family lawyer, and his father's criminal lawyer, we carefully documented all of his ex-wife's conduct to show that she either did not actually fear our client or that her fear was unreasonable. We also found examples of lies, omissions, and exaggerations in her police statements and family court pleadings.  We provided some of our evidence to the Crown Attorney's office to encourage them to drop all criminal court matters involving our client's family.

Result: The Crown Attorney's office withdrew the peace bond proceedings. Shortly afterwards, the Crown Attorney's office withdrew the criminal charges against our client's father. A few months later, our client's ex-wife tried to obtain a restraining order against him in the family court proceedings, but she was unsuccessful.

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