Family Law

Although Peter Simm does not otherwise practice in the area of family law, he demonstrated his versatility by vanquishing a Certified Specialist in Family Law on the appeal in Kraft  (1999, Ont. C.A.). Simm was sole counsel for the successful Appellant.

Simm was not counsel at trial, He was retained after  the loss at trial, and after  a judge had refused to reopen the matter because there was not “an arguable case on the merits,” and after  the appeal had been dismissed for failure to perfect within time.

Simm first won a motion in the Court of Appeal to reinstate the appeal. His winning argument on the appeal itself raised a single, novel point of law that had been overlooked at trial and by the law firm that retained him. Simm's argument was so tightly focussed that his oral submissions took just five minutes, including questions from the bench.

Kraft  is cited in 9 family-law textbooks and is the subject of commentaries in two legal periodicals.

Finally, a book that Simm co-authored (with Lisa Feld) on mediation was listed in the syllabus of a graduate-level university course, Family Mediation and Conflict Resolution, at the UBC School of Social Work.