Difference between revisions of "Introduction to Family Law"

•'''Child Support''': Money paid by one parent to the other for the financial support of a child.

•'''Child Support Guidelines''': A federal regulation, in force throughout Canada except Quebec, that shows how to calculate child support; the guidelines apply to regular child support and special and extraordinary expenses.

•'''Collaborative Settlement Processes''': A type of negotiation in which the parties and their lawyers sign an agreement to do everything they can to resolve family law issues without going to court, often with the help of counsellors, child psychologists and financial experts.

•'''Consent Order''': An order that the parties to a court case agree the court should make.

•'''Contact with a Child''': The time a person who is not a guardian has with a child, usually fixed by a schedule. Contact is a term used in the Family Law Act.

•'''Court Case''': A court proceeding between two or more people. Also called an action or lawsuit.

•'''Custody''': a term used in the Divorce Act. It may refer to a parent’s right to have the child live in their home and to make decisions about the care of the child. It may exclude the other parent.

•'''Divorce''': The legal end of a marriage by a court order.

•'''''Divorce Act''''': A federal law that talks about divorce, custody of and access, child support and spousal support.

•Excluded Property: Property owned by a spouse before the spouses began to live together or married, plus certain kinds of property received afterwards (like gifts and inheritances) that are excluded from family property and normally remain the property of the owning spouse. Excluded property is a term used in the ''Family Law Act''.

•'''Family Debt''': Debt incurred by either spouse during their relationship, normally shared between both spouses. Family debt is a term used in the ''Family Law Act''.

•''Family Property''': Property owned by one or both spouses at the end of a relationship, normally shared between both spouses. Family property is a term used in the Family Law Act.

•'''Family Court''': A division of the Provincial Court of British Columbia which deals with family law issues under the Family Law Act.

•'''Family Justice Counsellor''': A Family Court staff member trained in mediation and available to help with issues about the care and control of the child, child support and spousal support.

•'''''Family Law Act''''': A provincial law that talks about guardianship, parenting arrangements, contact with a child, child support, spousal support and the division of property and debt.

•'''Guardianship''': The right of a parent (or of a person appointed by the court as a guardian) to care for a child and usually have parenting responsibilities allocated to them. A person must be a guardian of a child to have the right to make parenting decisions for a child and the right to get information from and give instructions to the important people involved in a child’s life, such as teachers, doctors, counsellors and coaches. A person must also be a guardian to have parenting time with a child. A person who is not a guardian may have contact with a child. Guardianship is a term used in the ''Family Law Act''.

•'''Hearing''': A formal meeting with a judge for a conference to argue an application or for a trial.

•'''Interim Application''': An application for an interim order.

•''Interim Order''': An order made after a court case has begun but before it has ended by a trial or a settlement. Interim orders are temporary and last until they are changed by another interim order or until trial or settlement.

•'''Litigation''': A process for resolving a dispute through the court system, which starts with service of the court forms stating the court case and describing the legal claims and ends with the abandonment of the court case by the person who started it, a settlement or a trial.

•'''Married Spouse''': Someone who has been legally married to someone else.

•'''Mediation''': A voluntary, formal bargaining process in which the parties try to resolve a family law dispute with the help of a neutral mediator.

•'''Negotiation''': A voluntary, informal process in which the parties try to resolve a family law dispute by bargaining with each other.

•'''Order''': The mandatory direction of a judge.

•'''Parent''': Someone who is the natural parent of a child, the adopted parent of a child, a parent by assisted reproduction, or, in some cases, a donor of eggs or sperm and a surrogate mother.

•'''Parental Responsibilities''': Decisions about the upbringing and care of a child made by the child’s guardians. “Parental responsibilities” is a term used in the ''Family Law Act''.

•'''Parenting Arrangements''': The arrangements made in an order or agreement for parental responsibilities and parenting time. Parenting arrangements is a term used in the ''Family Law Act''.

•'''Parenting Time''': A guardian’s time with a child, usually fixed by a schedule. Parenting time is a term used in the ''Family Law Act''.

•'''Payor''': Someone who must pay child support or spousal support to someone else, the “recipient,” as a result of a court order or an agreement.

•'''Property''': Anything that has value, such as a house, a bank account, a company, the contents of the family home and any other asset.

•'''Protection Order''': An order restricting a person’s behaviour to protect someone else. Protection order is a term used in the ''Family Law Act''.

•'''Separation''': The breakdown of a romantic relationship. Separation usually means that a couple have moved out and are living apart from each other, but it is possible to be separated while still living in the same home.

•'''Separation Agreement''': A written agreement recording a settlement of some or all of the issues in a family law dispute.

•'''Settlement''': The resolution of a legal dispute on terms agreed to by the parties. May be recorded in a written agreement or in a consent order.

•'''Spousal Support''': Money paid by one spouse to the other, the “recipient”, to help pay for that spouse’s living expenses.

•'''Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines''': An academic paper describing formulas used to calculate the spousal support payable, when a spouse is entitled to receive it, and how long it should be paid for.

•'''Spouse''': A married spouse, under the ''Divorce Act'' and the ''Family Law Act'', or an unmarried spouse, under the ''Family Law Act''.

•'''Stepparent''': Someone who is the spouse of a parent.

•'''Supreme Court''': British Columbia’s superior court which deals with family law issues under the common law, the ''Family Relations Act and the Divorce Act''.

•'''Recipient''': Someone who is entitled to receive child support or spousal support from someone else, the “payor”, under a court order or written agreement.

•'''Trial''': The resolution of a court case by presenting evidence and argument to a judge.

•'''Unmarried Spouse''': A person who has lived with someone else in a marriage-like relationship for at least 2 years. For spousal support claims, it includes people who have lived together for less than 2 years and have had a child together.