Ottawa Men's Centre

Peter Roscoe's Research

               Gender Bias in Family Law at the

                 Court of Appeal Ontario 2007

  Peter Karl Roscoe

    Apr 2006, Revised Sept 2007

Part III                                   Discrimination by Year

Discrimination indexes may also be calculated for the court on the basis of issues. In appendixes B1 to B13 the cases heard by these 26 judges have been arranaged chronilogically and the results tabulated for each year

1996

The database contained 28 family cases for 1996 and 25 of them had data on cost penalties. 8 appeals were innitiated by females and 20 appeals by males. 1 cross appeals was brought by a man. The cases and their outcomes can be found in Appendix B2. A summary of the decisions is as follows

Summarized in percentage terms

It can be concluded that in the overall result including costs, a woman had a (24/36 x 100) 66.7 % chance of winning, and a man had a (10/64 x 100) 15.6 % chance of winning in 1996. On appeal issues alone a woman had a (9/11 x 100) 81.8 % chance of winning, and a man had a (9/39 x 100) 23.0 % chance of winning. Success as decided by cost penalties assigned was 11.7 % in favor of men, 62.7 % in favor of females and divided 25.6 % of the time.

Overall Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 66.7 – 15.6 = 51.1 %

Appeal Issue Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 81.8 – 23.0 = 58.8 %

Cost Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 62.7 – 11.7 = 51.0 %

Female / Male Wins = 66.7 / 15.6 = 4.3

Win Index = ( Female Wins + Male Wins ) / 2 = ( 66.7 + 15.6) / 2 = 82.3 / 2 = 41.2 %

1997 Cases

The database contained 17 family cases for 1997 and 16 of them had data on cost penalties. 8 appeals were innitiated by females and 9 appeals by males. 1 cross appeal was brought by a woman. The cases and their outcomes can be found in Appendix B3. A summary of the decisions is as follows

Summarized in percentage terms

It can be concluded that in the overall result including costs, a woman had a (17/29 x 100) 58.6 % chance of winning, and a man has a (8/31 x 100) 25.8 % chance of winning in 1997. On appeal issues alone a woman had a (8/13 x 100) 61.5 % chance of winning, and a man had a (4/15 x 100) 26.7 % chance of winning. Success as decided by cost penalties assigned was 25.0 % in favor of men, 56.3 % in favor of females and divided 18.7 % of the time.

Overall Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 58.6 – 25.0 = 32.8 %

Appeal Issue Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 61.5 – 26.7 = 34.8 %

Cost Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 56.3 – 25.0 = 31.3 %

Female / Male Wins = 58.6 / 25.0 = 2.3

Win Index = ( Female Wins + Male Wins ) / 2 = ( 58.6 +25.01) / 2 = 83.6 / 2 = 41.8 %

1998 Cases

The database contained 21 family cases for 1987 and 19 of them had data on cost penalties. 9 appeals were innitiated by females and 12 appeals by males. 1 cross appeal was brought by a woman and 1 by a man. The cases and their outcomes can be found in Appendix B4 A summary of the decisions is as follows

Summarized in percentage terms

It can be concluded that in the overall result including costs, a woman had a (18/31 x 100) 58.1 % chance of winning, and a man had a (4/34 x 100) 11.8 % chance of winning in 1998. On appeal issues alone a woman had a (6/12 x 100) 50.0 % chance of winning, and a man had a (2/15 x 100) 13.3 % chance of winning. Success as decided by cost penalties assigned was 10.5 % in favor of men, 63.2 % in favor of females and divided 26.3 % of the time.

Overall Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 58.1 – 11.8 = 46.3 %

Appeal Issue Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 33.3 – 12.5 = 20.8 %

Cost Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 50.0 – 13.3 = 36.7 %

Female / Male Wins = 58.1 / 11.8 = 4.9

Win Index = ( Female Wins + Male Wins ) / 2 = ( 58.1 + 11.8) / 2 = 69.9 / 2 = 35.0 %

1999 Cases

The database contained 51 family cases for 1999 and 48 of them had data on cost penalties. 25 appeals were innitiated by females and 26 appeals by males. 1 cross appeal was brought by a woman and 2 by men. The cases and their outcomes can be found in Appendix B5. A summary of the decisions is as follows

Summarized in percentage terms

It can be concluded that in the overall result including costs, a woman had a (56/87 x 100) 64.4 % chance of winning, and a man had a (19/86 x 100) 22.1 % chance of winning in 1999. On appeal issues alone a woman had a (27/39 x 100) 69.2 % chance of winning, and a man had a (11/38 x 100) 28.9 % chance of winning. Success as decided by cost penalties assigned was 16.7 % in favor of men, 60.4 % in favor of females and divided 22.9 % of the time.

Overall Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 64.4 – 22.1 = 42.3 %

Appeal Issue Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 69.2 – 28.9 = 40.3 %

Cost Discrimination Index = % Female Wins - % Male Wins = 60.4 – 22.9 = 37.5 %

Female / Male Wins = 64.4 / 22.1 = 2.9

Win Index = ( Female Wins + Male Wins ) / 2 = ( 64.4 +22.1) / 2 = 86.5 / 2 = 43.3 %

2000 Cases

The database contained 17 family cases for 2000 and 14 of them had data on cost penalties. 6 appeals were innitiated by females and 11 appeals by males. 1 cross appeal was brought by a woman and 3 by men. The cases and their outcomes can be found in Appendix B6. A summary of the decisions is as follows