How Do I Start a Family Law Action in the Supreme Court?
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First you have to fill out a form called a Notice of Family Claim, Form F3. The court will not provide you with a guide to filling this form out, so you must be as precise and accurate as possible. There are a lot of free online resources which can help you complete these forms, but if you have any questions, you should really see a lawyer.
The Notice of Family Claim sets out the basic information about who you are, who the other side is, and describes the sorts of claims you are making. Additional schedules are attached to your Notice of Family Claim depending on the orders you are asking for which will require you to provide more detailed information about your marriage, your children, your property and debts, and so forth.
Other forms you might needEdit
If you are married and you are asking that the court make an order for your divorce, you must file the original copy of your marriage certificate. (This is the government document, not the certificate you received from the person who married you.) If your claim involves the family home or other property, you may also want to prepare a certificate of pending litigation (CPL). (More information about CPLs is available in the section on Protecting Property & Debt.)
If your claim involves support, property or debt, you'll also wind up filling out a Financial Statement in Form F8. This isn't due until later on in the court proceeding but you can get started now.
If your claim involves guardianship of a child and you are not already a guardian, you'll need to fill out a special affidavit in Form F101. This form isn't due now either, but the form can take some time to fill out and you will need to order records checks from the police and the Ministry for Children and Family Development. You might as well get on this now.
Filing your materialsEdit
When you've finished filling out your Notice of Family Claim, make three complete copies and take everything, including your marriage certificate and your CPL to the courthouse. You will have to fill out yet another form when you file your materials, a Registration of Divorce Proceeding. The court will provide this to you. It will cost $210 for you to file your Notice of Family Claim plus another fee to file your CPL, if you need one.
The court will give your action a file number, and stamp all four copies of your materials with the seal of the court, a date stamp and the file number of your action. If you have filed a CPL, the court will stamp that too. Note that you must also file your CPL at the Land Title and Survey Authority for it to take effect; they will charge you another fee.
What happens next?Edit
Once you've filed your Notice of Family Claim, you must arrange to have it served on the other side. You cannot serve the other person yourself, you must get someone else to do that for you, whether that person is a professional process server or a helpful friend. After the other person has been served, he or she will have 30 days to file a Response to Family Claim. The other side may also file a form called a Counterclaim. If this happens, the other side is making a claim of his or her own against you.
When you have received the other person's Response to Family Claim, you will have to set up a judicial case conference (JCC). You can do this with a special form of Requisition that the registry will have on hand. A JCC is an informal hearing before a judge or master intended to review the issues between the parties, and see what issues can be agreed on and what can't be. The judge or master will also canvass different ways of settling the action.
It can be very important to have a JCC as soon as possible, as most applications for interim orders can't be made until a JCC happens. There are some exceptions to this rule:
- if you are making an application for a financial restraining order against your spouse,
- if the other side consents to the order you want, or
- if there is an emergency and you have to make your application without notice to the other side.
More information about JCCs and the rules that govern them is available in the section on Case Conferences in a Family Law Matter.
This information applies to British Columbia, Canada. Last reviewed for legal accuracy by JP Boyd, March 24, 2013. |
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JP Boyd on Family Law © John-Paul Boyd and Courthouse Libraries BC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada Licence.