Difference between revisions of "Responding to a Court Proceeding in a Family Matter"

If a court proceeding has been started against you, you have two choices: do nothing or respond to the proceeding and defend yourself. If you agree with the orders the other party is asking for, doing nothing is the cheapest and quickest way to handle the matter. On the other hand, if you only partly agree or completely disagree you must respond to the claim or you risk losing by default.

This section discusses the process for responding to a court proceeding in the Supreme Court and the Provincial Court. For a more complete picture of the court process, read this section together with the section on [[Starting a Court Proceeding in a Family Matter|Starting a Court Proceeding]].

The Provincial Court is designed for people who are not represented by a lawyer. There are no filing fees in this court, the forms are a lot easier to prepare, the rules of court are simpler, and the court registry will sometimes take care of things like drafting court orders. The main disadvantages of proceeding in the Provincial Court are that the authority of the court is limited and there are fewer opportunities to explore the other party's case before the trial. The Provincial Court can only hear applications under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' on certain subjects, including:

{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[Shannon Aldinger]], June 8, 2019}}