Difference between revisions of "I Just Separated from the Other Parent of My Children"

# Ensure that you and your children are safe. This may mean leaving the family home for awhile and staying with friends or staying in a transition house. Look in the Yellow pages under "Crisis Centres", or see [[VictimLINK]], listed in the Resource Guide. The local police station can also give you information about transition houses and other victim services.

# If you need a lawyer but cannot afford one on your own, see if you qualify for legal aid representation. (See [[Legal Aid Representation|Legal aid representation]] in the Resource Guide for information about applying for legal aid.) If you qualify, the Legal Services Society will appoint a lawyer to advise you and represent you in court.<br /><br />If you don't qualify for legal aid representation, or if you think you can resolve your issues through mediation, you may wish to contact a [[Family Justice Centres|Family Justice Centre]]; see the Resource Guide for contact information. Counsellors at Family Justice Centres can provide information, mediation and assistance with applications involving custody, access, guardianship and maintenance in Family Court. However, they have no jurisdiction to help with divorce or division of family assets.  

# If you want to apply for custody, guardianship, access or maintenance in Family Court, complete an '''Application to Obtain an Order'''. Family Court forms and self-help information are also available online at the [[Family Law in BC]] website, listed in the Resource Guide. Click on the shortcut "Self-help guides", scroll down to "Family orders" and click on the appropriate link. If you do not feel it is safe to wait, you may ask the judge to make the order "without notice", meaning that the court will make its order without your ex-partner having a chance to be heard or being notified in advance that you are seeking an order. Without notice orders are always interim (short-term) and your ex-partner will eventually have a chance to speak to the judge before a final order is made.