Difference between revisions of "Overview of Case Conferences and Discovery in Family Law Matters"

#'''Questioning the other party out of court.''' In Supreme Court the parties may, if they wish, question each other outside of court, in a formal setting before a court reporter. This is called an ''examination for discovery''. Examinations for discovery, also called ''discoveries'', are helpful to get each person's views of the evidence and the issues on the record. Discoveries are almost always held after Financial Statements have been prepared and documents have been exchanged.  There is no similar procedure in Provincial Court.

#'''Other discovery processes available in Supreme Court.''' There are more extensive discovery processes in the Supreme Court than in Provincial Court, which processes include notices to admit (Rule 9-6), interrogatories (Rule 9-3), and pre-trial examination of witnesses (Rule 9-4).

#'''Have a trial preparation or management conference.''' In Supreme Court, parties attend a trial management conference (TMC) which is a formal hearing before a judge designed to fix the schedule of events at the trial and resolve as many disputes as possible about evidence before trial. Among other things, the judge will ask about the witnesses each party intends to present, the completeness of the disclosure made to date, expert's reports and expert witnesses, and anything else that can be dealt with to help make sure the trial will go ahead and be completed within the time available. A TMC is generally not an opportunity to engage in settlement discussions, although the judge at the TMC can order that a settlement conference happen.  In Provincial Court, parties must attend a trial preparation conference (TPC) unless they are represented by lawyers in which case the lawyers must attend and the parties must be available by phone to give instructions.  Similar issues are discussed at a TPC as at a TMC.  Both are discussed in more detail further in this section.

#'''Go to trial.''' At the end of the day, if you can't agree on a resolution you will wind up at trial. Do remember that one party has to take steps to schedule a trial (see the sections in this chapter on Preparing for Trial in Supreme and Provincial Court).  At the trial, each side will call their witnesses to give evidence, cross-examine the witnesses of the other party, and give their argument as to why the judge ought to make the orders that party is seeking. The judge will hear all the evidence and the arguments, and reach a decision in the form of ''reasons for judgment''.  The reasons for judgment are not always provided the date the trial ends;  often it takes a judge weeks or even months to reach their decision and write their reasons for judgment.  The lawyers, or the court clerk in the absence of lawyers, will prepare a final order based on the reasons for judgment.

* [http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/ Provincial Court website]

* [http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/supreme_court/ Supreme Court website]

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