Open main menu

Clicklaw Wikibooks β

Changes

The Law for Family Matters

8 bytes added, 21:37, 19 February 2020
Legislation
The two main statutes governing family law in British Columbia are the federal ''[http://canlii.ca/t/7vbw Divorce Act]'' and the provincial ''[http://canlii.ca/t/8q3k Family Law Act]''. The [http://canlii.ca/t/80mh Child Support Guidelines] is a regulation to the ''Divorce Act'' that has been adopted by the ''Family Law Act''. The ''Family Law Act'' has its own regulations, including the [http://canlii.ca/t/8rdz Division of Pensions Regulation] and the [http://canlii.ca/t/8rdx Family Law Act Regulation].
Because statutes and regulations have such a big impact on how we live our lives, they are relatively easy to find and usually relatively easy to understand. (A big exception to this general rule is the federal ''[http://canlii.ca/t/7vb7 Income Tax Act]'', which is a horror show I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Good luck understanding that when you have to file your taxes!) Unlike the common law, legislation is written down and systematically organized, and when a law is changed, the change is also written down recorded and it all continues to be nicely and systematically organized.
All of the current federal statutes can be found on the website of the [http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/ Department of Justice]. All of the current provincial statutes can be found on the [http://www.bclaws.ca/ BC Laws] website run by the Queen's Printer. [http://www.canlii.org CanLII] also posts all current federal and provincial laws. It has the advantage of letting you see older versions of some laws, and you can search for cases that refer to specific statutes or regulations. You can also find the old ''[http://canlii.ca/t/ldg3 Family Relations Act]'' on CanLII, which you won't be able to find on the BC Laws website.