Difference between revisions of "Victoria Early Resolution and Case Management Model"

If you have a dispute about a family law matter, including child support, spousal support, parenting arrangements, contact or guardianship, you will start by filing a form called the Notice to Resolve a Family Law Matter at the Victoria registry, and giving the other party a copy.  You will then be directed to the Justice Access Centre (JAC) to make an appointment for your individual needs assessment.  At the needs assessment, a family justice counsellor will provide you with information about your options, about the court process, and about how to access legal advice and other resources.  They will make an assessment about whether consensual dispute resolution is appropriate for you, taking into consideration whether there are power imbalances, issues of safety or family violence, language barriers, the nature of the issues to be resolved and the ability of the parties to participate and/or accommodations that can be made to facilitate participation.  

If you have children you will be required to complete the [[Parenting after Separation|Parenting After Separation]] program, unless you have completed it within the last two years or meet one of the few exemptions.

If it is appropriate you and the other party will participate in at least one consensual dispute resolution session to mediate your issues.

When issues are resolved during early resolution you can formalize your agreements by written agreement or consent order.

When the other party has replied or the time for reply has passed, you can contact the Judicial Case Manager to schedule a Family Management Conference.  At the Family Management Conference, you and the other party (or parties) will meet with a judge. The judge will work with you to see whether agreement can be reached on some or all of the issues, The judge can  make interim (temporary) orders or final orders by consent.

*giving, refusing or withdrawing consent to medical, dental or other health-related treatments for a child, if delay will result in risk to the health of the child,

*applying for a passport, licence, permit, benefit, privilege or other thing for the child, if delay will result in risk of harm to the child’s physical, psychological or emotional safety, security or well-being,

Parties involved in these matters will file and serve an application and proceed to a hearing without having to participate in the early resolution processes.  If the parties have one of these types of matters and and an early resolution family law matter, they can go through court to get the one issue resolved and proceed through early resolution and case management on the other issues.  The model recognizes that protection orders and some parenting matters are urgent and need to proceed directly to court.