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| *Preparing for and Going to Trial in Supreme Court: [[Preparing for and Going to Trial in Supreme Court#Schedule and attend a trial management conference (TMC)|Schedule and attend a trial management conference]], and | | *Preparing for and Going to Trial in Supreme Court: [[Preparing for and Going to Trial in Supreme Court#Schedule and attend a trial management conference (TMC)|Schedule and attend a trial management conference]], and |
| *Preparing for and Going to Trial in Provincial Court: [[Preparing for and Going to Trial in Provincial Court#Attend a trial preparation conference (TPC)|Attend a trial preparation conference]]. | | *Preparing for and Going to Trial in Provincial Court: [[Preparing for and Going to Trial in Provincial Court#Attend a trial preparation conference (TPC)|Attend a trial preparation conference]]. |
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| ==Resolving a court proceeding without a trial is still possible==
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| Case conferences and other rules of court aim to promote settlement.
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| There are many reasons why it's important that family law court proceedings are resolved by agreement. From the court's point of view, settlement helps to protect the children from ongoing conflict, settlement frees up valuable court and administrative resources that can be applied to other cases, and lessens the likelihood that the proceeding will require ongoing court hearings in the future. From the point of view of the parties, the people involved in the family law case, settlement is cheap, helps to protect the children from ongoing conflict, allows you to stop living in limbo and instead to get on with your life, and gives everyone involved the best chance of having a tolerable relationship with each other as time goes on.
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| Lawyers also have an interest in settling matters, for all of the same reasons why settlement is important to the courts and to the parties. In addition, lawyers have a professional and an ethical duty to promote settlement wherever possible, providing that a proposed settlement is not an unreasonable compromise of our clients' interests. This is written into our [https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/support-and-resources-for-lawyers/act,-rules-code/code-of-professional-conduct-for-british-columbia/ Code of Professional Conduct].
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| The laws and rules of court for family law proceedings have evolved to provide additional opportunities for settlement and steer people away from trial and out of court. In fact, s. 4 of the provincial ''[[Family Law Act]]'' says that the purposes of the part of the ''Act'' on dispute resolution are to:
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| <blockquote><tt>(b) to encourage parties to a family law dispute to resolve the dispute through agreements and appropriate family dispute resolution before making an application to a court;</tt></blockquote>
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| <blockquote><tt>(c) to encourage parents and guardians to</tt></blockquote>
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| <blockquote><blockquote><tt>(i) resolve conflict other than through court intervention, and</tt></blockquote></blockquote>
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| <blockquote><blockquote><tt>(ii) create parenting arrangements and arrangements respecting contact with a child that is in the best interests of the child.</tt></blockquote></blockquote>
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| Rule 7-1 of the [http://canlii.ca/t/85pb Supreme Court Family Rules], requires the parties to a family law court proceeding to attend a judicial case conference (JCC) early in the proceeding, and Rule 7-2 allows the parties to schedule a settlement conference with a judge. Under Rule 7-1(15)(a), one of the purposes of a JCC is to:
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| <blockquote><tt>identify the issues that are in dispute and those that are not in dispute and explore ways in which the issues in dispute may be resolved without recourse to trial</tt></blockquote>
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| Rule 7 of the Provincial Court Family Rules allows a judge to require the parties to attend a family case conferences (FCC) for the same sort of purpose, and Rule 7(4)(a) allows the judge hearing the FCC to attempt to mediate a resolution of the proceeding.
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| The Supreme Court Family Rules include other rules that encourage and promote settlement and are more extensive than the Provincial Court Family Rules in doing so:
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| *Rule 11-1 of the Supreme Court Family Rules allows parties to a family law court proceeding in Supreme Court to make offers to settle, which offers can have consequences for the costs one party (usually the losing party) is required to pay the other party (usually the winning party) at the end of the proceeding if it goes to trial; and
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| *Rule 16-1 of the Supreme Court Family Rules allows a party (usually the winning party and after a trial) to seek costs from the other party (usually the losing party) although the “costs” do not represent a dollar-for-dollar reimbursement for legal fees (and can be awarded even if the winning party does not have a lawyer). There are, however, exceptions to this general rule.
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| In general, if you can resolve a court proceeding without going to trial, you should. However, the settlement, whether it's reached with the help of a judge or not, must be fair and reasonable. (It's always a relief to settle a court proceeding, but if the settlement is unfair a return to court is inevitable!) Case conferences can really help to move a difficult case toward resolution, but the judge cannot force to you accept a settlement. You must agree that a proposed settlement is reasonable and agree to end the court proceeding on the terms of that settlement.
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| ==Supreme Court: Judicial case conferences== | | ==Supreme Court: Judicial case conferences== |
