Isaac's Family Law Blog

Family Law Court Process: The Motion A motion is a litigation tool that helps you manage the court process by allowing you to potentially get a result before a trial. The type of order you seek from a court on a motion is generally one that temporarily deals with a major issue. It may be the real issue that brought you to court in the first place. If you succeed in your motion, the decision will usually have temporary effect. It is possible, however, that even though the motion may be in advance of a trial, the decision that you want the judge to make could permanently decide the issue. For example, in a vaccination dispute where one parent wants to vaccinate the child(ren) and the other wants to wait, if the pro-vaccination parent is given the decision making power and uses it, this would permanently deal with the matter because they can't un-vaccinate the child afterward. Motions are a major aspect of court action that require much preparation on the part of the client and th...

Family Law Court Process - The Settlement Conference In previous articles, I wrote about what you could expect at early stages of the family law court process. The procedure is that after a case conference and possibly a motion, another pre-trial hearing called a settlement conference is scheduled. At times a settlement conference can be combined with a case conference, but often a settlement conference will be held separately and after all disclosure has been made. A matter cannot proceed to trial without having held a settlement conference. What Can I Expect at My Settlement Conference? A settlement conference is intended to promote resolution of the issues after all financial disclosure and reporting has been made to the parties and the court. With the benefit of the entire picture, a judge at a settlement conference is in a position to provide a judicial opinion that gives each party a solid assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their claims. If one party has not made...

The Family Law Court Process: Step 3 - The Reply A possible third step in the family law or divorce court process is the Reply. I say it's possible because a Reply is only made when the respondent makes an Answer that raises new claims. In that case, the applicant can respond to only the new claims. Similar to the application and the answer, the Reply will set out the applicant's response to the new issue(s) raised by the respondent. But if the responding person does not raise new issues in his or her Answer, the applicant does not make a Reply. A Reply can be lengthy and your family law lawyer will write the response with your input. The costs associated with making a Reply are approximately the same as the other main documents -- $3500 to $5000 -- depending on the length of the response and the complexity of gathering information needed to respond to the new claims. Photo credit: Olya Harytovich A Reply can be made only by the applicant. So if you are considering starting a c...

Family Law Court Process: Step 2 - The Answer If you've made an application or a motion to change, the other party will have to make an answer ("Form 10 Answer"). Alternatively, if you've been served with an application or motion to change, you will have to make an answer, unless you do not wish to defend your position. In that case, the other party can obtain a summary hearing to deal with his or her claims more quickly against you. In most cases an answer is made. Think of an answer as the family law version of a statement of defence. It responds to the claims made in the application or motion to change. It alleges new facts that the responding party is using to support its position. The answer also has a section in which the responding party can make claims of its own with alleged facts to support those new claims. If you are the respondent (the one making the answer), you'll generally have to also prepare a financial statement. In family law, even if property ...