Difference between revisions of "Introduction to Family Law in British Columbia"

*spousal support under the ''Family Law Act'', and

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, can deal with all family law problems. As well as issues about , child support, and spousal support under the ''[[Family Law Act]]'', this court can also deal with:

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!style="width: 20%" align="center"|Supreme Court

!style="width: 20%" align="center"|Provincial Court

|align="center"|'''Family property and<br/>family debt'''||align="center"|Yes||

To get to court, you must start a court proceeding and tell the court what you want. In the Provincial Court, proceedings are started with a court form called an Application to Obtain an Order. In the Supreme Court, the court form is called a Notice of Family Claim. These forms ask you to state the basic facts of the case and the sort of orders you think the court should make. The orders you want the court to make are called ''claims''. (In the Provincial Court, a person who starts a court proceeding is called the ''applicant''; in the Supreme Court, this person is the ''claimant''.)

Once a court proceeding has started, the people against whom the proceeding has been brought can reply to the claims being made and make new claims of their own. In the Provincial Court, this court form is called a Reply, and the form includes parts for both replying to the claims being made and making new claims. In the Supreme Court, two court forms can be used: a Response to Family Claim, used to reply to the claims being made, and a Counterclaim, use to make new claims. (In the Provincial Court and in the Supreme Court, a person answering a court proceeding is called the ''respondent''.)

* [[Resolving Family Law Problems in Court]], in particular the sections on [[Starting a Court Proceeding in a Family Matter]], [[Responding to a Court Proceeding in a Family Matter]], and [[Interim Applications in Family Matters]]

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!style="width: 20%" align="center"|Provincial ''Family Law Act''

!style="width: 20%" align="center"|Federal ''Divorce Act''

*how the parents <span class="noglossary">will</span> make decisions about important things in the children's lives, like where they <span class="noglossary">will</span> go to school or how they <span class="noglossary">will</span> be treated if they get sick, and

*how much time each parent <span class="noglossary">will</span> have with the children.

The ''[[Divorce Act]]'' talks about these issues in terms of ''decision-making responsibilities'', ''parenting time'' and ''contact''. Parenting time is the time the child spends with each parent. Contact is the time someone other than a parent, like a grandparent or another relative, has with a child. Decision-making responsibility is how the parents share the responsibility of making decisions on behalf of their child; these responsibilities can be shared by both parents or divided between parents such that one parent has responsibility for decisions about one part of their child's life, like education, while the other parent has responsibility for another issue, like health care.

The ''[[Family Law Act]]'' talks about these issues in very similar ways. It talks about ''guardianship'' and ''parental responsibilities'' (which is pretty much the same thing as decision-making responsibilities), ''parenting time'' (which is very close to the same thing the ''Divorce Act'' means by parenting time), and ''contact'' (which is exactly what the ''Divorce Act'' means by contact). People who are guardians, usually parents, have parental responsibilities and parenting time. Someone who isn't a guardian, which might include a parent who isn't a guardian, may have contact with a child.

{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[JP Boyd]], 14 February 2020}}