Family Law Trials in Supreme Court

If you are unable to settle your case to your satisfaction, you will need to go to trial.

Preparing for and going to trial is the most complex part of the court proceeding. Both steps require careful planning and organization as well as being mindful of the many deadlines set out in the rules of court (the Supreme Court Family Rules) some of which arise months before the trial date.

There are also many rules about what evidence is allowed and how evidence is to be presented in court. Although the law of evidence is beyond the scope of this chapter, a good summary is found in Proving Your Case in Supreme Court (although do be aware that the references to rules are the Supreme Court Civil Rules rather than the Supreme Court Family Rules)

Preparing for trial in the supreme court

A Note About Summary Trials: There are two available types of trial in Supreme Court – a regular trial (which is the type you see on TV and in the movies with cross-examination of witnesses and lawyers making legal arguments) and a summary trial (which is trial where each witness’ evidence is introduced by affidavit LINK NEEDED FOR TERM AFFIDAVIT).

Summary trials are appealing because they can often be dealt with in fewer days of court time, often don’t involve cross-examination of the parties, and therefore are often easier and less expensive for the parties. However, summary trials are not suitable for all court proceedings; they are suitable only where there is sufficient evidence before the court for the judge to make a decision.

The factors a court will consider in deciding whether a summary trial is appropriate include: the complexity of the matter, any urgency and prejudice likely to arise by reason of delay, the cost of taking the case forward to a conventional trial in relation to the amount involved, the course of the proceedings, whether credibility is a critical factor in the determination of the dispute, whether the summary trial may create an unnecessary complexity in the resolution of the dispute and whether the application would result in litigating in slices (see Inspiration Management Ltd. v. McDermid St. Lawrence Ltd. (1989), 36 B.C.L.R. (2d) 202 (C.A.)).

Summary trials are more common where lawyers are involved, and rare if both parties are self-represented.

Summary trials are governed by Rule 11-3 of the Supreme Court Family Rules and are not subject to all of the rules and procedures described in the rest of the section below.

Summary trials must be heard at least 42 days before the scheduled trial date (see Rule 11-3(3) of the Supreme Court Rules) and a summary trial application must be set for hearing in accordance with Part 10 of the Supreme Court Rules (Obtaining Orders Other Than at Trial).

This information applies to British Columbia, Canada. Last reviewed for legal accuracy by Shannon Aldinger, June 15, 2017.

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.