Otherwise, the parties and their arbitrator are free to be creative as they want and create the rules and the process that are best-suited to the parties, their children, their dispute, their timeline, and their budget.
===Essentials Other uses of the ''Arbitration Act''arbitration===
The arbitration of family law disputes in British Columbia is governed by the provincial ''[http://canlii.ca/t/84gc Arbitration Act]'', formerly known as the ''Commercial Arbitration Act''. The highlights of the act are these: <blockquote>'''Section 1:''' An ''arbitrator'' is defined as a person who resolves a dispute referred to them by the parties. An ''arbitration agreement'' is an agreement between two or more persons to have their dispute resolved by arbitration.</blockquote><blockquote>'''Section 2:''' The act applies to commercial arbitration agreements and "any other arbitration agreement," including family law arbitration agreements. When making decisions about children, the arbitrator must consider only the best interests of the children.</blockquote><blockquote>'''Section 9:''' An arbitrator can make interim awards on any of the issues identified in the arbitration agreement, such as interim awards regarding the care of children, child support, and spousal support.</blockquote><blockquote>'''Section 14:''' The final decision of an arbitrator is binding on the parties, although the arbitrator's decision can be changed or canceled if the process or decision is procedurally defective, under section 30, or if the decision is appealed to the court, under section 31.</blockquote><blockquote>'''Section 23:''' "An arbitrator must adjudicate the matter before the arbitrator by reference to law unless the parties, as a term of an agreement referred to in section 35, agree that the matter in dispute may be decided on equitable grounds, grounds of conscience or some other basis." Awards that are inconsistent with the ''Family Law Act'' are not enforceable.</blockquote><blockquote>'''Section 29:''' Awards in family law disputes can be enforced without first getting the court's permission.</blockquote><blockquote>'''Section 30:''' The court can change an award for the same reasons that it can change a court order.</blockquote><blockquote>'''Section 31:''' Awards in family law disputes can be appealed.</blockquote> ===Other ways arbitration can be used in family law disputes=== Arbitration is very flexible often very helpful in resolving family law problems quickly and efficiently. Parenting coordinators use a process a lot like arbitration to make a decision decisions resolving a disagreement disagreements when the parents aren't able to find a solution solutions to which they both agree. The flexibility of arbitration also means that people can ask their arbitrator to make a decision based on the rules of a religion, based on grounds of conscience, or based on equity and fairness.
Arbitration can also be used to:
* #break logjams in settlement discussions, where only one or two issues can't be agreed upon,;* #resolve disagreements about how the law should be interpreted or applied in a particular situation,;* #make temporary decisions about support or parenting arrangements while the parties are negotiating a settlement; or, or* #perform technical calculations, like about the amount of costs payable, the income of someone who is self-employed, the amount of spousal support payable, or the after-tax cost of children's expenses.
====Faith-based arbitration====
Under section 19.10 of the ''Arbitration Family Law Act'', the parties can choose their own rules law to govern the arbitration process. Nothing in the act says that those rules this law cannot be a religious ruleslaw. Judaism and Islam , for example, each have religious laws that can apply to family law disputes for members of those faiths. Members of the orthodox Jewish community may use Halakha to settle personal disputes. Muslims can use Sharia law for the same purpose.
Whatever rules a couple chooses, however, the result of an arbitration cannot be "inconsistent" with the ''Family Law Act'' or the ''[[Divorce Act]]''. Section 23(2) 19.20 of the ''Arbitrartion Family Law Act'' says this:
<blockquote><tt>Despite any agreement of the parties to a family law dispute, a provision of an arbitration award that is inconsistent with this Act or the ''Family Law Divorce Act'' (Canada) is not enforceable.</tt></blockquote>
This means, for example, that child support must be paid to the person who has the child most of the time by the person who has the child for the least amount of time, and that the amount of support paid cannot be too different from what the [[Child Support Guidelines]] require. It also means that a particular person shouldn't have the primary residence of a child merely because of their gender or , the age of the childor some other arbitrary reason.
Note that if the parties to faith-based arbitration wish to obtain a divorce, they must still start a court proceeding in the Supreme Court of British Columbia for a divorce order. A religious divorce, such as the Jewish Get, is not a legal divorce.