Difference between revisions of "Conflict of Laws Issues in Family Law"

When a court order about children has been made under the ''[[Divorce Act]]'', a spouse who moves to a different province can apply to change that order in the new province under s. 5 of the act. The courts of British Columbia will hear an application for an order different than the original order as long as:

#either spouse normally lives in this province, or

#both spouses agree that our courts should deal with the matter.

Since the ''Divorce Act'' applies to the whole of Canada, ''Divorce Act'' orders have effect throughout Canada. An order made under the ''Divorce Act'' may be registered in any court in Canada under s. 20(3) of the act, and will be treated as an order of the court in which it is registered for enforcement purposes.

#the child normally lives in British Columbia, or

#the child is physically present in the province but will be at serious risk unless the original order is changed.

When a court order about support has been made under the ''[[Divorce Act]]'', a spouse who moves to a different province can apply to change that order in the new province under s. 18 of the act. The order that the spouse gets, however, will only be a ''provisional order'' which has no immediate effect. The Attorney General is required to send the provisional order to the court that made the order, and that court will have a ''confirmation hearing'' under s. 19. If that court confirms the provisional order, the order will be changed. There's more information about this in the [[Making_Changes_to_Child_Support|Making Changes]] section of the chapter on [[Child Support]], under the heading "[[Making_Changes_to_Child_Support#Orders_made_outside_British_Columbia|Orders made outside British Columbia]]."