<blockquote>'''The parties attend case conferences.''' ''Case conferences'' are meetings with judge to talk about the court proceeding. They often provide an opportunity to talk about settlement option and to ask for orders about steps in the court proceeding as the proceeding heads to trial. 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 answers questions out of court.''' In court proceedings before the Supreme Court, each party is usually required to attend an ''examination for discovery'', which you may . This is an opportunity for each party to ask the other parties questions about things that are relevant to the legal issues so that everyone knows the evidence that will be given at the trial. This is also an opportunity to ask each party to provide more documents.</blockquote>
<blockquote>'''Go to trial.''' Assuming that settlement isn't possible, court proceedings are resolved by trials. At trial, each of the parties presents their evidence and explains to the judge why the judge should make the orders they're asking for. The judge may make a decision resolving the decision on the spot; most often, however, the judge will want to think about the evidence and the parties' arguments and will give a written decision later, often weeks or even months later.</blockquote>
After Remember that you can continue to try to negotiate a settlement with the documents have been exchanged, in Supreme Court proceedings each other party will schedule an examination at every stage of the other partythis process. An examination is an opportunity You can even decide to ask questions about try mediation in the facts middle of a court proceeding, and , if you are getting tired of the issues out of court so that everyone knows the evidence that process or are worried about how long it will be given at take to have a trial, you can abandon the trial. This is also an opportunity court process altogether and go to ask for more documentsarbitration.</blockquote>
<blockquote>While working your way through the court process, you may find that it's sometimes necessary to ask for ''Go to trial.interim orders''' Assuming . These are temporary orders that settlement isn't possibleaddress a short-term problem or need, the only way to resolve or that help the court proceeding is get to have a trial. At In family law cases, people often ask for interim orders to protect someone when family violence is an issue, to deal with the trialpayment of child support or spousal support, each of the parties will present their evidence and explain to the judge why the judge should make the orders asked for. The judge may make get a decision resolving the decision on the spot; most often, howeverparenting schedule in place, to determine how the judge children will want be cared for, or to think about protect property while waiting for the evidence and the parties' arguments and will give a written decision later (often weeks or even months later)trial.</blockquote>
Remember that you can continue to try to negotiate The process for interim orders is a settlement with miniature version of the other party at every stage of this larger processfor getting a claim to trial.
While working through this <blockquote>'''The applicant starts the application.''' The person who wants the interim order, the ''applicant'', starts the application processby filing an application and an affidavit in court, and delivering the filed application and affidavit on the other party, it is sometimes important to ask for called the ''interim ordersapplication respondent''. These are temporary The application describes the orders that might be necessary to get a the applicant wants the court proceeding through to a trial or to take care of a short-term needmake. In family law cases, people often ask for interim orders The affidavit describes the facts that are relevant to protect against family violence, to deal with the payment of child support or spousal support, to determine how application and the orders the children will be cared applicant is looking for. For more information about affidavits, or to protect property while waiting for see the trial date and page, [[How Do I Prepare an Affidavit?]], in the judge's decision that followsHelpful Guides & Common Questions part of this resource.</blockquote>
<blockquote>'''The process for interim application respondent files a response.''' The ''application respondent'', the person who is responding to the application, has a certain amount of time after receiving the application and affidavit to file a response and an affidavit in court. The response says which orders is the person agrees to and which they object to. The affidavit describes any additional facts that are important to the application. The response and affidavit must be delivered to the applicant.</blockquote> <blockquote>'''The applicant may file another affidavit.''' The applicant has a miniature version certain amount of time after receiving the larger process for getting application respondent's materials to file another affidavit in court. This affidavit is a claim response to trialthe application respondent's affidavit and describes any additional facts that are important to the application. This affidavit must be delivered to the application respondent.</blockquote>
*'''The applicant starts the application.''' The person who wants the interim order, the ''applicant'', starts the application process by filing an application and an affidavit in court, and serving the filed application and affidavit on the other party, called the ''application respondent''. An affidavit is a written statement of the facts that are important to the application. For more information about affidavits, see the page, [[How Do I Prepare an Affidavit?]], in the ''How Do I?'' part of this resource.*'''The application respondent files a response.''' ''The application respondent'', the person who is responding to the application, has a certain amount of time after being served to respond to the application by filing a response and an affidavit in court. The response says which orders the person agrees to and which are objected to; the affidavit describes any additional facts that are important to the application. The response and affidavit must be delivered to the applicant.*'''The applicant has the opportunity to file a further affidavit to reply to the response.''' The applicant has a certain amount of time after being served with the application respondent's materials to file a further responding affidavit in court. The responding affidavit describes any additional facts that are important to the application. The responding affidavit must be delivered to the application respondent.*<blockquote>'''Go to the hearing.''' Assuming that settlement isn't possible, the only way to resolve the application is to have a hearing. At the hearing, each of the parties will present the evidence set out in their affidavits and explain to the judge why the judge should , or shouldn't, make the orders asked for. Most of the time the judge will make a decision resolving the decision on the spot; sometimes, however, the judge will want to think about the evidence and the parties' arguments, and will give a written decision later.</blockquote>
For more details see the section [[Interim Applications in Family Matters | Interim Applications]] in this chapter.
There are lots of details we've skipped over in this brief overview, including details about important things like experts, case conferences, and the rules of evidence, but this is the basic process in a nutshell. These other details are governed by each court's set of rules. The rules of court are very important! , and the rules of the [http://canlii.ca/t/85pb Provincial Court] are ''very'' different than the rules of the [http://canlii.ca/t/8mcr Supreme Court].
You can probably guess that this getting a court proceeding to trial can be a long and involved process, and that if you have a lawyer representing you, it'll cost a lot of money to wrap everything up. Making these procedural delays worse, trial dates are often in short supply. In the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, for example, it can you may not be possible able to get trial dates for short family law trials in as little as six months, but most of the time it takes a year or more to get from the start of a proceeding to one-week trialany sooner than 18 months.
It's important to remember that you and the other party can agree to resolve your dispute out of court at any time in this process. You should always be thinking about ways to reach agreement outside of the court process. Just because litigation has been started, that does not mean that you have to continue to litigate. If you haven't done so already, please read the chapter [[Resolving Family Law Problems out of Court]].
==Resources and links==
{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[Shannon AldingerJP Boyd]], June 8, 20193 April 2020}}
{{JP Boyd on Family Law Navbox|type=chapters}}