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→Parallel proceedings in the Supreme Court
===Parallel proceedings in the Supreme Court===
If the applicant has started a court proceeding against you in the Provincial Court, the Provincial Court is where you are. If you need to ask for orders under the ''Divorce Act'' or orders about the division of property and debt, you can start a separate court proceeding in the Supreme Court. My personal preference, and I think the preference of most family law lawyers, is to keep everything in the same court if that's at all possible. If you wind up starting The general rules about what happens if there's a court proceeding in the Supreme Court, you or the applicant can apply for an order that the two proceedings be ''consolidated'', that they be combined into one each court proceeding. Section are set out in section 194.1 of the ''Family Law Act'' says this: <blockquote><tt>If a proceeding under this Act and a proceeding under this Act or another Act are started in the same court, the court, on application or on the court's own initiative, may consolidate the proceedings.</tt></blockquote> Since the Supreme Court can deal with all of the claims that the Provincial Court can, as well as a bunch that it can't, the consolidated proceeding will be be in the Supreme Court. If the court proceedings ''aren't'' consolidated, the general rules about parallel court proceedings are set out in section 194:
<blockquote><tt>(1) If a proceeding respecting a family law dispute may be started in either the Supreme Court or the Provincial Court, the starting of a proceeding in one court does not prevent the starting of a second proceeding in the other court, unless the relief applied for in the second proceeding has already been granted or refused in the first proceeding.</tt></blockquote>
<blockquote><tt>(5) If the Supreme Court acts under subsection (4), the Supreme Court's order is deemed to be an order of the Provincial Court for all purposes.</tt></blockquote>
<blockquote><tt>(6) Nothing in this section authorizes the Supreme Court to change, suspend or terminate an order of the Provincial Court if the Provincial Court has refused to change, suspend or terminate the order, except as provided under section 233 [appeals from Provincial Court orders].</tt></blockquote>
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