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Difference between revisions of "Family Law Trials in Provincial Court"
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*the ability and willingness of a party to a family law dispute to satisfy the needs of a child. | *the ability and willingness of a party to a family law dispute to satisfy the needs of a child. | ||
The section on [[Basic Principles of Parenting after Separation]] in the chapter on [[Children and Parenting after Separation]] describes the various assessments and reports. | |||
Depending on the scope of the assessment, a social worker or a counselor or a psychologist may be appointed. Most section 211 assessments involve the appointed person conducting interviews with both parents as well as the children, although a Hear the Child report only involves interviews of the children. The assessment may involve additional steps such as observing each parent with the children (either in each parent’s home or at the psychologist’s office), conducting psychological testing of the parents (if the person is a psychologist and qualified to do so), conducting interviews with collateral witnesses, and preparing a written report of the observations and opinions (if asked that an opinion be provided). Not all Views of the Child reports provide the report writer’s evaluative opinion of what would be best for the children, so you will need to carefully consider what report you think you need. You can also read these pages from the [[JP Boyd on Family Law — Helpful Guides and Common Questions|Helpful Guides and Common Questions]] part of this resource: | |||
*[[How Do I Get a Child's Views in a Report for the Court?]], and | |||
*[[How Do I Get a Needs of the Child Assessment?]] | |||
While | The cost of such a report can vary greatly from two thousand or a few thousand dollars for interviews of the children only in a Hear the Child report, to over $10,000 (and often considerably more) for a more extensive assessment and report. Publicly funded reports are available free of charge through the province but are less extensive, often take longer to prepare, and require a court order. Publicly funded reports do not provide the psychological testing option. | ||
If the other party doesn't want a report — or doesn’t want to pay for a report — you will need to apply to court for an order that a report be conducted. Apply to court for this using the Form 10 Application About a Case Management Order and make sure you have as much information as possible: who you want to write the report, how much it will cost and how you think it should be paid for, and what the timelines are. If you want a publicly funded report, you will need to apply to court using the Form 10 Application About a Case Management Order even if you and the other party agree that this report should be done. See the section on [[Interim Applications and Provincial Court Family Law Proceedings]] for more details on applications for ''case management orders'' like this. | |||
Any of these reports must be filed and served on each party at least 30 days before the trial. | |||
Because these reports take time to complete — and because you may have to ask for one at court — you should consider starting this process as early as possible. | |||
While a report writer's recommendations are not binding on the court, these recommendations (if recommendations are being made in the report) are often very persuasive at trial. They can also assist in moving settlement discussions forward for this same reason. | |||
=== Consider expert evidence === | === Consider expert evidence === | ||