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→Starting arbitration
First, you might have a family law agreement — like a cohabitation agreement, a marriage agreement, or a separation agreement — which says that any disputes or questions about the agreement, or the subjects the agreement covers, will be resolved through arbitration.
Second, you might agree, after a problem has arisen, that you'll go to arbitration instead of going to court, or instead of another process like mediation or collaborative negotiation. You can even agree to resolve a dispute through arbitration after a court proceeding has started. A lot of people decide to do this when they find out how far away their trial is scheduled to start, and when they find out that there's no guarantee that they'll get a judge who is an expert in resolving family law disputes.
You cannot force someone into arbitration, including by asking for a court order that you go to arbitration. Even though section 224(1) of the ''Family Law Act'' says that "a court may make an order to ... require the parties to participate in family dispute resolution," the court will not make an order that someone go to arbitration. Resolving a dispute through arbitration has to be voluntary, either because you've already agreed to use arbitration ''if'' a problem comes up or because you've agreed to use arbitration ''after'' the problem has come up.