JP Boyd on Family Law Editorial Manifesto

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An editorial manifesto for a new public legal education resource

By John-Paul Boyd, April 2013

When Courthouse Libraries and I first started talking about the wiki project, there were some core values that I wanted the wiki to maintain. I’d never thought about these things before, but when we started talking about how the wiki would look and be run, I realized that there were in fact certain qualities of my website that I wanted to preserve. From this came a set of guiding principles for the editorial tone of what is now called JP Boyd on Family Law. My hope is that this resource will continue to be:

1. Free
   The information should be available for free, to anyone, without restriction and without expectation of reward.
2. Plain language
   Information should be as accessible as possible and couched in colloquial language to the extent possible, without being inaccurate. It should avoid lawyer’s jargon to the extent possible, and may use humour, when humour is appropriate and relatively inoffensive.
3. Up-to-date and accurate
   The information should be timely and accurate, within reason and practicality.
4. Recommendatory of subject matter
   The information should not solely be about describing the options, but be prescriptive and recommendatory, when being prescriptive and recommendatory is appropriate. To some extent this will be an expression of policy and preference.
5. Promoting of good behaviour in the justice system
   The information should promote the overall functioning of the justice system by promoting behaviours that are helpful and facilitate resolution and discouraging those which do not and, in particular, behaviours that degrade the efficiency of the court registry services, chambers applications and trial processes.
6. For sharing and redistribution
   The information should be broadly shared, and sharing and redistribution should be encouraged on the conditions that the source of the information be identified and that any subsequent reuse not be for a commercial purpose.
7. Helpful
   Above all, the information should be helpful. It should be practical and pragmatic and the wiki should provide other resources, like court forms, charts and checklists, where they would serve a practical purpose.

A person licensed to practice law in a particular jurisdiction by that jurisdiction's law society. See "barrister and solicitor."

A judge of the superior courts of British Columbia, being the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

A central office, located in each judicial district, at which the court files for each court proceeding in that district are maintained, and at which legal documents can be filed, searched and reviewed.

A type of hearing in the BC Supreme Court, where a judge or an associate judge hears applications. Unlike trials, evidence is presented through affidavits instead of live witnesses, the proceedings are less formal (no one wears robes), and the result is often an interim order instead of a final order. Chambers can address procedural issues, but also interim orders dealing with parenting or support concerns, or other issues that come up before a family law trial is held.

The testing of the claims in a court proceeding at a formal hearing before a judge with the jurisdiction to hear the proceeding. The parties present their evidence and arguments to the judge, who then makes a decision resolving the parties' claims against one another that is final and binding on the parties unless successfully appealed. See "action," "appeal," "argument," "claim," "evidence" and "jurisdiction."