Difference between revisions of "Starting and Responding to Provincial Court Family Law Proceedings"

# Ask the family justice counsellor to set up consensual dispute resolution with the other party.

#*This is commonly called mediation and a family justice counsellor will work with both parties to see if you can resolve your issues. The counsellor will make an assessment about whether consensual dispute resolution (mediation) is appropriate for you. This means they will consider whether there are power imbalances between you and your ex, safety or family violence issues, or language barriers.

#*Other people (like a support person or your lawyer) can only attend if the other party agrees.

#*If issues are resolved during early resolution, you can formalize your agreements by written agreement or consent order.

Kelowna, Nanaimo, and Vancouver (Robson Square)'s registries are Family Justice Registries (note however that in November 2025, Vancouver (Robson Square) will switch to become an Early Resolution Registry). If you are in a Family Justice Registry, ''before'' you file a Form 3 Application About a Family Law Matter you must do the following:

#* [https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/divorce/family-justice/who-can-help/family-justice-centres/locations/kelowna Kelowna's Family Justice Centre]

#* [https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/divorce/family-justice/who-can-help/family-justice-centres/locations/nanaimo-justice-access-centre Nanaimo's Justice Access Centre]

===Waiving conditions to filing your family law claim===

* what condition you want the court to waive, and  

* why the court should waive it.  

Rule 27 of the Provincial Court Family Rules say what you need to serve on the other side (i.e. the respondent). You need to serve the respondent with a filed copy of the Form 3 Application About a Family Law Matter, your Form 4 Financial Statement (if applicable), your parenting course certificate (if applicable), and Instructions on Filing a Reply (which you can get from the registry). The respondent needs to be served personally by an adult — specifically this means a third party who is at least 19 years old (it cannot be you or your lawyer). They must physically hand the filed paper copies of the documents to that party. The person who gives the documents needs to make a note of the time, date and location and then fill out a Form 7 Certificate of Service. You can then file that with the court to prove that the other person was served, or at least be prepared to file it if the respondent does not file a response.

Once served, the other party then has 30 days to file their Form 6 Reply to an Application About a Family Law Matter (and to file their own Form 4 Financial Statement, if needed). When the other party has replied or the time for reply has passed and they haven’t filed a reply, you can contact the Judicial Case Manager to schedule a Family Management Conference ("FMC"). Sometimes, the registry will email you to schedule the FMC. The registry tries to schedule these as soon as possible at a time that works for both parties. If the other party included a ''counter application'' in their reply, this means the respondent is requesting their own court orders.  

* Send copies of each document to the other party. This can be by email if the other party included an email address on their Form 3 Application About a Family Law Matter.

If you included a ''counter application'' in your Reply, the other party may respond with a Form 8 Reply to a Counter Application, indicating their position on the orders you are requesting. In practice, applicants often do not bother to file a Form 8 Reply to a Counter Application unless there is something truly unusual or unexpected in the counter application. If the applicant does wish to file a reply to the counter application, the Provincial Court Family Rules say they have 30 days to do so.

Parties who start off the family law case by applying for "other orders", or for enforcement under Part 10 of the Provincial Court Family Rules, can get to a court appearance ''without'' having to fulfill the normal pre-conditions that the registries require at the beginning of cases that involve ''family law matter''. This means that even if you are in an Early Resolution Registry, you can apply directly to court to get these other kinds of issue resolved first. Some situations (especially protection orders and some parenting matters) are simply too urgent to wait for everyone to meet with a family justice counsellor for a needs assessment, complete a parenting education course, or go through a consensual dispute resolution process.  

The Provincial Court Family Rules has specific forms for these special types of applications for "other orders" or enforcement. Luckily, the rules for these are the same no matter what type of registry you are in.

* Form 11: Other orders can be applied for without giving notice and without attendance in court (such as applying to serve someone by email, or to file a court document later than the deadline).  

If you need a court appearance, the court registry will set the date and you must give a copy of the application with the date and time to the other person (it is best to ask them beforehand if they are available). If a case management order is made without notice, you'll have to send a copy of the order, the application, and any supporting evidence or documents to the other party.

Orders about ''priority parenting matters'' are decisions where a delay in obtaining a court’s decision would pose a risk to a child, such as a parent refusing to let a child have a medical treatment or travel (where the travel is safe and reasonable). These applications should be filed in rare circumstances and only in situations listed in Form 15 Application About a Priority Parenting Matter. If you apply for anything else except what is in the boxes listed on the form, the judge will likely dismiss your application entirely.  

===Orders about relocation===