Is parallel parenting making a come back?

It seems since 2006, when the Court of Appeal ruled that parties that can not get along the results will often favour one parent being granted custody and the other labelled the access parent. Numerous courts, including the Ontario Court of Appeal, have ruled that joint custody is a viable option only in circumstances where the parties are able to communicate and cooperate with each other.

The thought being that one parent must ultimately make the day-to-day decisions and in high conflict cases. When the parties can not get along, how is the best interests of the child going to be met? The answer - sole custody to one, access to the other.

A recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice case, Hensel v. Hensel (2007), 2007 CarswellOnt 7010 (S.C.J) tests the water with parallel parenting. Is it making a come back?

The Court opined that parallel parenting orders have historically been made by a court in circumstances where a high degree of conflict exists between two otherwise capable parents.

Although there is some dispute in the academic literature about the definition of what parallel parenting is for the purpose of this case the presiding justice adopted the following comments of the authors Birnbaum and Fidler:

Parallel parenting as defined by the social science literature is not a manifestation of joint legal custody in the sense of the parents making major decisions jointly, but rather; parallel parenting involves each parent making the final decision about a different domain. In other words, each parent has sole custody, only over a different domain of decision-making.

An unusual Order handed out in unusual circumstances according to this writer.

For a good review of another case which has been confirmed at two levels of Court is Cox v. Stephen (2002), 2002 CarswellOnt 2321 (S.C.J) and confirmed at [2003] O.J. No. 4371 (Ont. C.A.).

If any counsel or readers have their own experience with Court ordered parallel parenting models please write. This writer is curious as to the circumstances of how they arose and whether they actually work.