There are some legal claims involving former spouses that are not considered ''In British Columbia, "family law claims'" typically refers to the law about divorce, spousal support, children's parenting arrangements, child support, and property division. If these issues are addressed in court, they are ''civil claims''. ''Tort addressed through claims'' fall brought under the category of civil claims and include claims against a spouse for an injury they caused you. Civil claims aren't covered by the ''[[Divorce Act]]'' or the ''[[Family Law Act]]''. The terms ''civil claims'' and ''tort claims'' are used interchangeably in this chapter.

Family law is a kind of ''civil law''. "Civil law" refers to every kind of law other than criminal law. Other branches of the civil law include the law about contracts, the law about property, and the law about something called ''torts''. Tort law is the law that applies when someone does something, or doesn't do something, that causes harm to someone else. Tort law includes claims about a wide range of misbehaviour, such as negligence, defamation and invasion of privacy. Tort law also includes claims about things that are more directly relating to family violence, such as assault, battery, and infliction of emotional harm. Claims like these aren't covered by the ''Divorce Act'' or the ''Family Law Act''.  Tort claims for abuse and family violence can overlap with family law issuescan be the subject of a law suit on their own, or they can be combined  STOPPED HERE  but they arise independently from the ''Family Law Act'' and its treatment of ''family violence''. The ''Family Law Act'' has its own specific definition of family violence that: