Take control of your Future

Move forward with personalized and tailored family law guidance, advice, and strategies.

Get the Guidance you need

Solely navigating the legal realities of unexpected family and relationship challenges is a near-impossible task.

We work with you through the difficult emotional rollercoaster you are facing and provide clear, logical, understandable, and personalized guidance, advice, and strategies that make the legal process less stressful and intimidating.

Reduce Your Stress

Reduce Your Stress

Every family and relationship is unique. When issues arise, there are many considerations on the road to resolution.

Whatever your situation and legal requirement, our team will help you gain a balanced resolution by addressing and redressing all your concerns. Together we will protect your interests and provide you the closure you merit in a respectful, dignified, and cooperative manner.

Services

Rely on Experience and Expertise

Regardless of the family issue you are facing, our experienced team will work tirelessly to create a safe haven where you are comfortable discussing your concerns during this emotional and stressful period.

Marie-Hélène Godbout

Lawyer
Accredited Family Mediator/Arbitrator
Collaborative Family Law Lawyer
Accredited Child-Inclusive Mediator

Suzanne Brunet

Senior Law Clerk
Office Manager
Account Services

Robertson Egalite

Director of Client Success

Kaéshon Godbout

Leader of Client Experience

Contact

No matter what your family needs, we strive to ensure our legal team understands and represents you, your family, and your values.

Together, we can find the unerring balance between the requirements of family law and your expectations for what a successful resolution of your unique situation should be.

Call for an appointment or use the contact form to send us a message.

General Line: 613-417-1799

Parenting coordination

When children are exposed to ongoing conflict between their parents, they are at significant risk for social, academic, and mental health challenges, and may experience more difficulty with their own intimate relationships or the navigation of their parents’ separation in the short and the long term. Parenting coordination can help to reduce parents’ conflict and may shield children from exposure to their parents’ disagreements. The parenting coordinator can help parents resolve child-related issues in a timely manner without court involvement and can protect and sustain safe, healthy, and meaningful parent-child relationships. Most importantly, the parenting coordinator can help parents focus on the best interests of their children, rather than on their anger toward one another. Finally, and in priority, the parents’ toxic communications can heal and achieve a direction of progress, stability, and respect which will result in the children thriving overall.

Arbitration

The process of arbitration is one of private adjudication of disputes. It offers significant benefits over court litigation, including and not limited to speed, efficiency, lower costs, greater privacy and confidentiality, and heightened control over a difficult process. Arbitration offers the ability to the parties to select their elected expert decision maker, which in turn provides more flexibility, less stress, and the opportunity to achieve final resolution of complex disputes in a timely manner. The parties control the process and bypass crowded court dockets that can lead to more adapted and tailored outcomes for all.

Hurt | SOS | IPV

Domestic violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) includes coercive control, physical, emotional, psychological, financial, ethical, religious, and other forms of abuse. Sometimes the issues that have led to a breakdown of the family dynamic include physical altercations that require the application of family law to protect everyone involved.

Get advice and guidance about how family law applies to the legal rights and considerations of family members who fall under the umbrella of domestic violence, whether as the author of or the victim of abusive interactions.

Parenting Plans

Determining how parenting will continue and evolve following a relationship breakdown is one of the most stressful considerations on the path to resolving your family or relationship challenge.

Reduce your stress and anxiety and find the right solution for your unique situation with experienced legal advice and guidance about:

  • Decision-making authority
  • Contact and parenting time
  • Child-focused co-parenting processes, principles, structures, and coordination

Cohabitation Agreements

Some couples are under the mistaken impression that maintaining a long-term relationship is less legally complicated if marriage is avoided. But family law is just as specific about the legal rights of cohabitation partners as it is about married partners.

Our family law team can help you protect yourself and your assets with agreements that outline the financial standing and ownership rights of both partners in the relationship and what will happen if the relationship ends.

Marriage Contracts

What we think we own and the rights we assume we have in a marriage can create unnecessary conflict when relationships break down.

Our legal team can help you avoid potential conflict with a marriage contract that clearly outlines the financial standing and ownership rights of both partners in the relationship.

Child-Focused Mediation

The rights of children must be protected in any challenging family situation. They trump any conflict resolution approach.

Our family law team has extensive experience in children’s rights, child-focused services, and plan of care essentials to parenting success. You will be part of our team as we work together to ensure the rights and interests of all the children involved are safeguarded throughout the legal process.

Litigation

We believe litigation should only be considered when mediation or other alternative dispute resolution options have been exhausted or are not practical or feasible.

When litigation is necessary, we offer skilled and effective services by our highly experienced team.

Marie-Hélène Godbout

Lawyer
Accredited Family Mediator/Arbitrator
Collaborative Family Law Lawyer
Accredited Child-Inclusive Mediator

Marie-Hélène was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1998 and has practiced criminal law and family law as a sole practitioner in Cambridge, Kitchener, Orangeville, Milton, Brampton, Toronto, and Ottawa, Ontario.

Her focus in offering mediation services commenced in January of 2004. She is accredited and she is also trained to conduct child-inclusive mediations. She comes from two reputable Orléans Firms, one she joined in January 2011, where she practiced in the areas of family law and offered mediation services exclusively for ten years and the other where she championed in these areas for fourteen months.

Marie-Hélène is the founder of BiG Law Boutique and BiG Law Mediation Boutique, a personalized mediation and legal services practice. She continues to develop a boutique approach that is client-focused and geared towards the “care” factor when navigating a new relationship journey, reconstructed family dynamic, high-conflict family violence and other challenges, separation, and divorce.

Although she is an experienced litigator, the focus of Marie-Hélène’s practice is on achieving a fair, sound, and reasoned settlement for her clients without having to live the court experience. This focus mirrors the goal of mediation services, of the Collaborative Family Law process, and of the family dispute resolution realm.

However, in certain situations court is inevitable. Marie-Hélène will guide you and support you through the litigation process.

She will leave no stone unturned.

Marie-Hélène recognizes the need to see you through difficult emotional times and delicate, challenging tasks, such as restructuring your family in a respectful, dignified, and cooperative manner.

Marie-Hélène is bilingual and offers legal and mediation services in both official languages.

Marie-Hélène’s caseload in both mediation and litigation are in majority focused on intimate partner violence, child abuse, power imbalance, family violence, and high conflict where mental health challenges are abundant and in need of careful navigation through dignity and respect.

Mediation

Favorable family law results can often be achieved through mediation, without having to live with the stress and expense of litigation.

Realize the best resolution to your family or relationship challenge armed with a team of experts skilled at crafting alternative paths to solving issues through:

  • Collaborative family law
  • Cooperative family law
  • Family dispute resolution (FDR)
  • Lawyer-assisted negotiations