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Difference between revisions of "Recent Changes to Family Law in British Columbia"
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Recent Changes to Family Law in British Columbia (view source)
Revision as of 23:54, 15 February 2021
, 23:54, 15 February 2021→Arbitration under the Family Law Act
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Until 1 September 2020, all you needed to know about the arbitration of family law disputes could be found in the provincial ''Arbitration Act''. That law, which used to be called the ''Commercial Arbitration Act'', was an all-purpose piece of legislation meant to apply to the arbitration of almost every kind of legal dispute. However, when the provincial government began to think about retooling that legislation it also began to think about creating a spot in the ''Family Law Act'' just for arbitration. | Until 1 September 2020, all you needed to know about the arbitration of family law disputes could be found in the provincial ''Arbitration Act''. That law, which used to be called the ''Commercial Arbitration Act'', was an all-purpose piece of legislation meant to apply to the arbitration of almost every kind of legal dispute. However, when the provincial government began to think about retooling that legislation it also began to think about creating a spot in the ''Family Law Act'' just for arbitration. | ||
This made a lot of sense, as one of the important changes the ''Family Law Act'' introduced when it came into effect in 2013 was encouraging people to resolve their family law disputes other than through court. Section 4 of the act said it was important for people to learn about all of the different ways to resolve family law disputes, section 5 imposed a duty on people to give each other full and complete disclosure whether they were resolving their dispute in court or not, and section 8 required lawyers to assess for the presence of family violence and advise their clients about the different options for resolving their dispute in light of that assessment. Sections 10 to 13 talked about the services Family Justice Counsellors can provide to help people resolve their disputes, and sections 14 to 19 allowed the court to appoint parenting coordinators, making British Columbia the first jurisdiction in Canada to provide for parenting coordination in its legislation. Why not fold arbitration into the | This made a lot of sense, as one of the important changes the ''Family Law Act'' introduced when it came into effect in 2013 was encouraging people to resolve their family law disputes other than through court. Section 4 of the act said it was important for people to learn about all of the different ways to resolve family law disputes, section 5 imposed a duty on people to give each other full and complete disclosure whether they were resolving their dispute in court or not, and section 8 required lawyers to assess for the presence of family violence and advise their clients about the different options for resolving their dispute in light of that assessment. Sections 10 to 13 talked about the services Family Justice Counsellors can provide to help people resolve their disputes, and sections 14 to 19 allowed the court to appoint parenting coordinators, making British Columbia the first jurisdiction in Canada to provide for parenting coordination in its legislation. Why not fold arbitration into the ''Family Law Act'' too? | ||
That's what sections 19.1 to 19.22 do. | That's what sections 19.1 to 19.22 do, and section 2(5)(b) of the new ''Arbitration Act'' makes it clear that the arbitration of family law disputes is now governed solely by the ''Family Law Act.'' | ||
(If you're wondering why the new sections of the ''Family Law Act'' are numbered 19.1, 19.2, 19.3 and so on instead of 20, 21 and 22, it's because of the havoc that would be created if the entire ''Family Law Act'' were renumbered. Think about all the cases that talked about the old section 21 that wouldn't make sense anymore! Instead, new sections that need to be inserted are given a decimal and a new series of numbers. This way, if you add two sections between section 68 and 69, the sections would be numbered as 68, 68.1, 68.2, 69, 70 and so on. The same thing applies to inserting new bits into a section. To add a new subsection between (c) and (d), the subsection would be numbered (c.1), and the subsections would be numbered as (a), (b), (c), (c.1), (d), (e) and so on.) | |||
==Changes to the Child Support Guidelines== | ==Changes to the Child Support Guidelines== | ||
