The provincial ''Family Law Act'' was written to encourage people to revolve family law problems other than through court. According to the government's [http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation/family-law/pdf/notes-binderpart2.pdf explanation] of the new act,:

explanation http://www.ag.gov.bc<blockquote>"Section 4 emphasizes that out-of-court dispute resolution processes and resolution through agreements are not simply add-ons to litigation but are the preferred option, with court as a valued, but last, resort.ca/legislation/<blockquote><blockquote>"This focus on familydispute resolution signals an important shift from the ''Family Relations Act'', which was criticized for being litigation-lawfocused and for assuming that every dispute would end in a trial."</pdf/notes-binder.pdfblockquote>

Section * requiring lawyers to explain the different ways that family law disputes can be resolved (ss. 4 emphasizes that and 8)* requiring the people involved in a family law dispute to make full disclosure of the information necessary to resolve the dispute, even when they're not in court (s. 5)* providing for the use of parenting coordinators to resolve disputes about parenting (ss. 15 to 19)* changing the rules about arbitration to better accommodate the arbitration of family law disputes (ss. 305 to 313)* allowing the court to delay a court proceeding while the parties attempt to resolve a family law dispute out-of-court (s. 223) The act also allows the court to require people involved in a court proceeding to attempt to resolve their dispute resolution processes out of court, and to attend counselling, at s. 224: <tt>:: (1) A court may make an order to do one or both of the following:::::(a) require the parties to participate in family dispute resolution ;through agreements are not simply add-ons to litigation but are ::::(b) require one or more parties or, without the consent of the preferred optionchild's guardian, with court as a valuedchild, but lastto attend counselling, resortspecified services or programs.• This focus on ::(2) If the court makes an order under subsection (1), the court may allocate among the parties, or require one party alone to pay, the fees relating to the family dispute resolution signals an important shift from the Family , counselling, services or programs.</tt>Relations Act, which was criticized for being litigation-focused and for assuming that every dispute would end in a trialsd