In arbitration, Arbitration is a dispute resolution process in which the parties hire a neutral third party, a family law arbitrator, to decide how make a decision resolving their dispute should that they agree they will be resolvedbound by. While the job of a mediator is to help two people work towards a solution that they make for themselves, the arbitrator's job is to act like a judge and impose a resolution, after hearing the evidence and listening to the arguments of each party.

Arbitration has rarely used been in family law matters in British Columbia, probably because most lawyers weren't used to it and probably because many lawyers figured that if they have to have somebody impose a decision in a case, it might as well be a judge. In British Columbia, arbitration was most often used in a labour law context. The new ''Family Law Act'', however, makes a number of changes to the provincial law that emphasize and highlight improve the importance usefulness of arbitration in family law disputes.

Arbitration has a number of advantages for as a way of resolving family law problems:

#it allows a couple to hand-pick the particular person who will make decisions about the issues they cannot agree on, which means that they might pick an arbitrator who has a special expertise in, for example, the care of children, tax problems or property issueissues;#it allows the couple to pick the particular rules that will apply to the arbitration process hearing and the arbitrator's decision, providing that the rules aren't too different from the usual rules of family law-making process; #the arbitration process is private and shielded from closed to the public scrutiny; and,#the result of of the process is an award that is just as binding as a court order and can be enforced is enforceable just like a court order.

As well , it is 's often faster to arrange a date for an arbitration than for a court hearing. Although short trials of two or three days can be booked within six or eight months, it can take a year or longer to get a date for longer trials because the court is so busy. An arbitration can be booked as soon as everyone has the free time in their calendars.

When a couple agrees to arbitrate their dispute — you can't force someone into arbitration, it has to be voluntary — they first pick their arbitrator and then they meet with the arbitrator to discuss the process leading to the arbitration hearing and pick their rules. Most of the time, the rules people select are the more important parts of the Supreme Court Family Rules relating to evidence, the discovery process experts and proceedings procedure at trial.

Next, the parties will exchange the documents and information that are relevant to their dispute. If child support is an issue, for example, Financial Statements might be prepared and documents like income tax returns, T4 slips and paystubs might be exchanged. If the parties cannot agree on how a child should be cared for, they might hire a psychologist to prepare a report on the parenting arrangements that will work best for the child, called a ''needs of the child assessment'', or they might hire a third party lawyer or a social worker to talk to the child and prepare a ''views of the child report''. The nature of the documents that are important and the extent of the disclosure which is required will change depending on the circumstances and how the parties decide to approach their dispute.

Once the documents have been exchanged and the experts' any reports have been prepared, the parties then will attend one or more meetings hearing with the arbitrator. These meetings hearings take place in the arbitrator's office and are usually a lot less formal that than court hearings, and ; there can be as much flexibility to the arbitration process as the parties and the arbitrator will agree to. The meetings are sort of a cross between the informality of the mediation process At these hearings, each party presents their evidence, which may include witnesses who give testimony or may be limited to documents and the rigid formality of the litigation processaffidavits, and each party essentially attempts then makes arguments to convince show the arbitrator and the other side that their proposed way of settling the dispute is the best solution for everyonewhy he or she should make a particular decision.

At the end of the meetingsAfter hearing process is over, the arbitrator will make provide a written decision, called an "''award''," setting out how summarizing the evidence, resolving all of the issues will be resolved. Although the award is legally binding on the parties and stands on its own, explaining why the parties might want to put the award into the form of a court order if litigation had been started, or into arbitrator resolved the form of a separation agreement if there are issues in the parties settled on their own that aren't covered by the award way he or if some terms of the award aren't suitable for a court ordershe resolved them.

===The Commercial ''Arbitration Act''===

The arbitration of family law disputes in British Columbia is governed by the provincial ''Arbitration Act'', formerly known as the ''Commercial Arbitration Act''. The highlights of the act are these.