All family law issues to be dealt with in family court begin with an Application (or Motion to Change). This document sets out to the court what the issues are. Most common are child custody, access, child support, spousal support and property division. The application is the foundational document to the court file and lays out the issues to be dealt with. Once the application is completed, it must be issued by the court and then personally served on the other party.

The Answer document allows the party served with the Application to respond in writing to the court with what they agree to, disagree to and what the want to ask the court for. The Responding party only has 30 days from when they receive the application to serve their answer and file it with the court.

The first court appearance is not before a judge but before a court clerk. It will typically be around 6 to 10 weeks after the application is issued. The purpose of the first court appearance is to ensure that all documents have been submitted by all parties by the prescribed timelines.  If the case is not ready to proceed, another first appearance date may be set which would be another delay.  If both parties have filed their documents and no agreement between them have been reached, they will be scheduled for a case conference. This will be scheduled in 2 – 3 months depending on Judge’s and court’s availability.

A case conference is the first time the parties will appear before a Judge.  At this point most parties are hopeful that a judge will make a decision on their case, but that won’t happen. The purpose of the case conference is to explore the issues, find out if any other information is required to be given to the other party and for the Judge to share their experience on how this issue may be decided if the case goes to trial. The Judge will encourage parties to talk and work out an agreement.  If none or only some of the issues are agreed upon, the court will then schedule a Settlement Conference ( or another case conference) which will again be in 2 – 3 months.

A settlement conference is similar to the case conference in the Judge will again be giving their views of the case and encouraging the parties to settle. Any outstanding information may be ordered to be disclosed and if there are still issues that are unresolved, the parties will be scheduled for another court date being the trial management conference. The timeline for this court date will be another 2 -3 months.

The trial management conference has a similar purpose of the case conference and the settlement conference. The Judge will encourage settlement on the outstanding issues and again give their perspective on how this may be decided by a trial Judge.  The parties will also explain to the Judge what the issues are, who the witness will be, the evidence they will be relying on and how long they will need for a trial. If there is no resolution to the issues, the case will be moved to the next stage which will be preparing for a trial.  Before the case is ever heard by a trial Judge, other steps need to be taken. Trials are only heard twice a year, in November and in May.  Once a case is ready for trial, it will be put on a trial list and wait for the next available trial sittings. This could be up to a year depending on when it is put on the schedule.

This is the last stage in the family court process and is the most time consuming and costly. Less than 2 % of cases ever reach this stage. Most families by this point have come to agree on how the will conduct their separated lives.  This is the point at which parents will have the least amount of control on the outcome of their family lives.  A Judge (one who has never seen the case or the parties) will hear testimony and evidence and rule on how the decisions will be made. The ruling will be a final court order.  Most times, neither party is happy with the outcome at trial.