Victoria Early Resolution and Case Management Model

If someone involved in your family law dispute is in Victoria, BC, a new court process may apply to you. In May 2019 the Ministry of Justice launched the Early Resolution and Case Management process for family law disputes filed in the Victoria registry of the Provincial Court of British Columbia.

Important changes
The special processes used by the Provincial Court in Victoria now also apply to cases in Surrey. If you have a family law case in the Surrey courthouse, speak to the court staff about how your case is affected.

When the Model applies

The Early Resolution and Case Management Model applies to you if:

• you already have a Provincial Court family law case with the same parties in Victoria,
• your family law case involves a child related issue and the child lives closest to the Victoria registry most of the time, or
• your family law case does not involve a child related issue and you live closest to the Victoria registry most of the time.

When the Model does not apply

The Model does not apply to you if:

• your file is transferred out of Victoria registry,
• you made an application before May 13, 2019 in the Victoria registry, or
• you filed your Notice of Motion before May 13, 2019 in the Victoria registry.

How the Model works

The Early Resolution & Case Management Model is designed to encourage parties to resolve family disputes by agreement or to help them move their case along to a quicker resolution.

If you have a dispute about a family law matter, including child support, spousal support, parenting arrangements, contact, or guardianship, you will start by filing a form called the Notice to Resolve a Family Law Matter at the Victoria registry, and by giving the other party a copy. You will then be directed to the Justice Access Centre (JAC) to make an appointment for your individual needs assessment. At the needs assessment, a family justice counsellor will provide you with information about your options, about the court process, and about how to access legal advice and other resources. They will make an assessment about whether consensual dispute resolution is appropriate for you, taking into consideration whether there are power imbalances, issues of safety or family violence, or language barriers, and also taking into consideration the nature of the issues to be resolved and the ability of the parties to participate and/or accommodations that can be made to facilitate participation.

If you have children, you will be required to complete the Parenting After Separation program, unless you have completed it within the last two years or meet one of the few exemptions.

If it is appropriate, you and the other party will participate in at least one consensual dispute resolution session to mediate your issues.

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

If there are still some issues that need to be resolved, and you need the Court’s help, you then file a form called the Family Law Matter Claim with all your supporting documents and serve it on the other party or parties.

When the other party has replied or the time for reply has passed, you can contact the Judicial Case Manager to schedule a Family Management Conference. At the Family Management Conference, you and the other party (or parties) will meet with a judge. The judge will work with you to see whether agreement can be reached on some or all of the issues. The judge can make interim (temporary) orders or final orders by consent.

If there are still issues to resolve, the judge can make case management orders to ensure the matter is ready for trial if one is needed. The usual process in provincial court for case conferences, trial preparation, trials, and enforcement of Family Maintenance matters still applies if your issues have not been fully resolved.

The Model also includes changes to the rules and forms for applications about:

• protection orders,
• enforcement of existing orders,
• giving, refusing, or withdrawing consent to medical, dental, or other health-related treatments for a child, if delay will result in risk to the health of the child,
• applying for a passport, licence, permit, benefit, privilege, or other thing for the child, if delay will result in risk of harm to the child’s physical, psychological, or emotional safety, security, or well-being,
• relocation of a child,
• preventing the removal of a child from a certain location, or
• determining matters relating to interjurisdictional issues.

Parties involved in these matters will file and serve an application and proceed to a hearing without having to participate in the early resolution processes. If the parties have one of these types of matters and an early resolution family law matter, they can go through court to get the one issue resolved and proceed through early resolution and case management on the other issues. The model recognizes that protection orders and some parenting matters are urgent and need to proceed directly to court.

To read more about the Victoria Early Resolution Model see: https://www.gov.bc.ca/victoria-early-resolution.

The Ministry of Justice has also published a simplified process map.

Resources and links

Resources

• Victoria Early Resolution & Case Management Model
• Victoria Early Resolution and Case Management Model Explained
• Simplified Process Map

Links

• Ministry of Justice

This information applies to British Columbia, Canada. Last reviewed for legal accuracy by Shannon Aldinger, June 15, 2019.

JP Boyd on Family Law © John-Paul Boyd and Courthouse Libraries BC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada Licence.