Difference between revisions of "Disclosure and Provincial Court Family Law Proceedings"

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In Canada, we don't litigate with cards up our sleeves. Instead, all of everyone's cards are on the table face up. This may not make a lot of sense right away, partly because of what we see in American movies and televisions shows, but the point is to cut through the bullshit to give each court proceeding the best possible chance of settling without having to go through a trial. As Justice Punnett said, in the 2013 BC Supreme Court case of ''[https://canlii.ca/t/fzqb3 J.D.G. v J.J.V.]'', 2013 BCSC 1274, "the goal of proper disclosure is to enable the parties to resolve their dispute." While that was a BC Supreme Court case, the guiding principles of that case are influential in the Provincial Court too.  

As a result, the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' and the Provincial Court Family Rules have parts intended to speed up the disclosure process, and automate as much disclosure as possible. For example, section 5(1) of the ''Family Law Act'' states that "a party to a family law dispute must provide to the other party full and true information for the purposes of resolving a family law dispute." As another example, when someone starts a court proceeding asking for orders about child support or spousal support, , they must file a Form 4 Financial Statement along with their initiating Form 3 Application About a Family Law Matter. And when the respondent files their Form 6 Reply to an Application About a Family Law Matter, they too must file a complete Form 4 Financial Statement.  

The ''[[Family Law Act]]'' is a provincial law and says a lot about the discovery process. Section 5 imposes a duty on the people involved in a family law dispute applies to everyone who is involved in a family law dispute, not just people who are going to court about their family law dispute. This section says that:  

If a court proceeding involves spousal support or child support in any way — including claims to change an existing support obligation or cancel arrears of support that have accumulated &mdash the Provincial Court Family Rules say that each party must prepare and file a Form 4 Financial Statement.  

Note that when the Form 4 talks about "personal income tax returns," what's required is the Canada Revenue Agency's T1 Income Tax and Benefit Return, not a ''tax return summary'' or a ''tax return information''.

Financial Statements are very important in family law proceedings. They are critical for determining child support and spousal support, and you mustn't take a casual "guesstimating" kind of approach to filling them out. You should expect that the other side will be reading your Financial Statement very carefully, and that you will find your credibility being challenged if the numbers don't make sense, if they're overblown or understated, or if they omit critical information. Now, to be fair, filling out this form can be difficult. The "expenses" part of the form is often the first time many people have sat down to work out what they spend in the average month on things like the cable bill, car insurance, dry cleaning, life insurance, hair cuts, and clothing. However, if the total of the "expenses" part is a lot higher than your total income in the "income" part, which it often is, I'm expecting to see a lot of debts in the "assets and debts" part of the form or I'm going to have a lot of trouble believing you!  

Family Management Conferences ("FMCs") are discussed in more detail in the section on [[Conferences and Provincial Court Family Law Proceedings]] within this chapter. FMCs are now a standard part of a case involving a ''family law matter'' in Provincial Court, and they happen early on. Disclosure issues is one of the things that can be addressed at this early meeting. The judge or family justice manager conducting the FMC has an opportunity to review what's missing in terms of undisclosed evidence. They can then make ''case management orders'' requiring further disclosure as appropriate. Judges can make more broad orders than family justice managers, but both have the power to order disclosure of information and exchange of evidence.  

This is just one of the reasons why it's important to prepare for Trial Preparation Conferences. By the time this conference rolls around, you should be well on your way to being ready for your trial. You should have organized all of the documents and information you're going to need to prove your case, including all of the documents and information that you need from the other party. If you need anything from the other side to help you prepare your case — from income tax returns, to bank statements, to report cards, to doctors' reports, to paystubs — this is the time to ask for an order that the other give you copies of those things.