Difference between revisions of "Resolving Family Law Problems in Court"

*'''The claimant files a reply.''' The claimant has a certain amount of time after being served to respond to any claim made by the respondent by filing a reply in court. The claimant's reply says which orders the claimant agrees to and which he or she objects to. The claimant's reply must be delivered to the respondent.

*'''The parties exchange information.''' Next, the parties gather the information and documents they need to explain why they should have the orders they are asking for. Because trials are not run like an ambush, the parties must also exchange their information and documents well in advance of trial. This way everyone knows exactly what is going on and how strong each person’s case is. If financial matters are in dispute, one the key documents you will need to exchange is a sworn financial statement.  There are different processes in Supreme Court and Provincial Court for exchanging information.  For more details, see the chapter called "Starting a Court Proceeding in a Family Matter".

*'''Each party is examined out of court.''' After the documents have been exchanged, in Supreme Court proceedings each party will schedule an examination of the other party. An examination is an opportunity to ask questions about the facts and the issues out of court so that everyone knows the evidence that will be given at the trial. This is also an opportunity to ask for more documents.

*'''Go to trial.''' Assuming that settlement isn't possible, the only way to resolve the court proceeding is to have a trial. At the trial, each of the parties will present their evidence and explain to the judge why he or she should make the orders asked for. The judge may make a decision resolving the decision on the spot; most often, however, the judge will want to think about the evidence and the parties' arguments and will give a written decision later.

You can probably guess that this can be a long and involved process, and that if you have a lawyer representing you, it'll cost a lot of money to wrap everything up. In the Lower Mainland, for example, it can be possible to get trial dates for short family law trials in as little as six months, but most of the time it takes a year or more to get from the start of a proceeding to trial.

==Resources and links==