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→An overview of court proceedings in civil matters
If you need the court to make an order about something, even about something you might agree to, like a divorce, you must start a ''court proceeding''. Court proceedings are also called cases, lawsuits, and actions. There are two types of court proceedings, ''criminal matters'' and ''civil matters''. Criminal matters concern the government's claim that someone has broken a criminal law, like the ''[http://canlii.ca/t/7vf2 Criminal Code]'' or the ''[http://canlii.ca/t/7vtc Controlled Drugs and Substances Act]''. Civil matters concern claims between people, companies and governments. Family law cases are civil matters.
===A few definitions===
Before going further, it'll help to learn some of the terminology used in litigation. (You can call find more definitions in the [[Terminology|Common Legal Words and Phrases]] chapter of this resource.)
<blockquote>'''Family law proceeding:''' A court proceeding that is started to resolve a family law dispute, and other civil claims related to that dispute.</blockquote>
===Court procedure in a nutshell===
Court proceedings in the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court, other than proceedings in criminal proceedingsmatters, work more or less like this:. <blockquote>'''The claimant starts the proceeding.''' The person who wants a court order, the ''claimant'', starts a court proceeding by filing a ''claim'' in court and serving the filed claim on the respondent. The claims says what orders the claimant wants the court to make. Serving the filed claim involves having the claim hand-delivered to the ''respondent'' by someone other than the claimant.</blockquote> <blockquote>'''The respondent files a response.''' The respondent has a certain amount of time after being served to reply to the court proceeding by filing a ''response'' in court. (The number of days is set out in the document filed by the claimant to start the court proceeding.) The response says which of the orders sought by the claimant are agreed to by the respondent and which are opposed. The respondent can also ask the court for orders they want. If the respondent wants a court order, the respondent will file a claim of their own, called a ''counterclaim''. The response and any counterclaim must be delivered to the claimant.</blockquote> <blockquote>'''The claimant files a reply.''' The claimant has a certain amount of time after receiving the counterclaim to reply to any claim made by the respondent by filing a ''reply'' in court. The reply says which of the orders sought by the respondent are agreed to by the claimant and which are opposed. The claimant's reply must be delivered to the respondent.</blockquote> <blockquote>'''The parties exchange information.''' Next, the parties gather the information and documents they need to explain why they should have the orders they are asking for. Because trials are not run like an ambush, the parties must exchange their information and documents well ahead of trial. This way everyone knows exactly what is going on and how strong each person’s case is. If financial matters are in dispute, one of the key documents you will need to exchange is a sworn financial statement. There are different processes in Supreme Court and Provincial Court for exchanging information. For more details, see the section [[Starting a Court Proceeding in a Family Matter]] in this chapter.</blockquote> <blockquote>'''The parties attend Case Conferences.''' ''Case conferences'' are conferences that take place in front of a judge and provide an opportunity for the parties to discuss settlement possibilities and obtain orders regarding the conduct of the court proceeding. For more about case conferences, see the section about [[Case Conferences in a Family Law Matter | Case Conferences]] in this chapter. </blockquote> <blockquote>'''Each party is examined out of court.''' After the documents have been exchanged, in Supreme Court proceedings each party will schedule an examination of the other party. An examination is an opportunity to ask questions about the facts and the issues out of court so that everyone knows the evidence that will be given at the trial. This is also an opportunity to ask for more documents.</blockquote>
Remember that you can continue to try to negotiate a settlement with the other party at every stage of this process.