Yellowknife (May 24/06) - Ken Allison has seen the nasty side of divorce during his 13-plus years as a lawyer in the North.

That's one reason the family law specialist is involved in a new government program that helps couples split without dragging each other through ugly court battles.

Family law specialist Ken Allison is heading a new program designed to help married couples split without dragging their kids through a nasty custody battle. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

"A custody fight has a tremendous emotional toll on the family, (especially) kids," Allison said last week.

"The court environment, by its very nature, is adversarial. A lot of people believe that is not the best way to solve family law matters."

As a mediator, Allison leads former spouses through the sometimes painful process of arranging child support, visitation rights and the other fall-outs of divorce. He does not usually deal with the division of assets, though.

Allison believes this is the first time a free-of-charge mediation program has been offered in the Northwest Territories. Since its inception in October 2005, seven couples have worked through their differences with Allison and he has eight more files in progress.

"It sounds obvious... but you need two parties who are willing to mediate," said Allison.

Spouses are often hurt and bitter with the break-up of their marriage, but they must be willing to talk for mediation to work, he said.

Allison often asks them to bring pictures of their kids to put on the negotiating table as a reminder.

"Our positions are very precious to us. I say: 'Park your position at the door and if (mediation) doesn't work, pick it up on the way out'," he said. "They need to remember this is for the kids."

Mediation usually takes six to nine hours and is spread out over the course of a month, Allison said.

Splitting couples come into his downtown office and talk through their issues in the hope of reaching an agreement that's acceptable to both. If it works, they're left with a legally binding document that covers things like child or spousal support, visitation hours and sometimes, what contact the one-time spouses have with each other.

The whole process can save people "thousands and thousands" in legal fees and avoid custody battles that can last for years, Allison said.

The program could lessen the backlog of divorce cases in NWT courts -- where legal aid lawyers are overwhelmed with files -- but Allison said it's not a "panacea" for the over-burdened system.

"In some cases the level of communication between the parties is so bad, they don't want to mediate."

Unless there is some basic level of talk, there is not much that can be accomplished through mediation, he said.