Script 114 gives information only, not legal advice. If you have a legal problem or need legal advice, you should speak to a lawyer. For the name of a lawyer to consult, call Lawyer Referral Service at 604.687.3221 in the lower mainland or 1.800.663.1919 elsewhere in British Columbia.

What is family law?
Family law is the branch of law that deals with family problems. Most of the time, these problems involve couples who have been in a married relationship or another kind of romantic relationship and have now separated. These problems can also involve people who have never been in a relationship, like when a couple who have never dated and have had a child or when grandparent asks for guardianship of a child.

In British Columbia, family law applies to people in same-sex relationships exactly as it does to people in opposite-sex relationships. There is no legal difference between heterosexual relationships and gay and lesbian relationships.

Common family law problems
When a couple separates they have a lot of decisions to make:

• Where will the children live? How will decisions about their care be made? 
• How will parents share their children’s time?
• Are the children entitled to ongoing financial support from a parent, and if so, which parent and in what amount?
• Does a spouse need financial assistance from the other spouse? Can the other spouse afford to pay it, and if so, in what amount and for how long? 
• Who will stay in the family home? How will property and debt be shared?

Different rules for different relationships
Family law deals with all of these decisions and more. However, not every couple needs to deal with all of these issues. The law that applies changes depending on the type of relationship you’re in. Family law talks about four types of relationship:

• Married Spouses: Married couples are legally married and require a divorce to end their legal relationship.
• Unmarried Spouses: Unmarried spouses have lived together in a “marriage-like relationship” for at least two years for claims concerning property, or for less than two years if the couple has had a child together, for claims concerning spousal support. Unmarried spouses don’t require a divorce to end their relationship. Their relationship is over when they separate.
• Parents: Parents have had a child together and can be married spouses, unmarried spouses, in a dating relationship with each other or not in a relationship at all. Parents can also be people who have helped have a child by assisted reproduction, by donating eggs or sperm, or by being a surrogate mother.
• Children’s Caregivers: People who have a significant role in a child’s life but aren’t the child’s parents.

Family law legislation
Family law also involves different laws that apply depending on the type of relationship:

• Divorce Act: The Divorce Act is a law of the government of Canada and is in force throughout Canada. The Divorce Act only applies to people who are married to each other or who used to be married to each other.
• Family Law Act: The Family Law Act is a law of British Columbia and applies to married spouses, unmarried spouses, parents and children’s caregivers. Not all parts of the Family Law Act apply to all of these relationships. The parts that talk about child support and the care of children apply to everyone. The parts that talk about spousal support only apply to married spouses and all unmarried spouses. The parts that talk about dividing property and debt only apply to married spouses and to unmarried spouses who have lived together for at least two years.

This chart shows which law applies to whom and for what purpose:
 

	Married Spouses	Unmarried Spouses	Parents	Children’s Caregivers
Divorce	√
Custody (Divorce Act)	√
Access (Divorce Act)	√
Guardianship (Family Law Act)	√	√	√	√
Parental Responsibilities and Parenting Time (Family Law Act)	√	√	√	√
Contact with a Child (Family Law Act)	√	√	√	√
Child Support (Divorce Act)	√
Child Support (Family Law Act)	√	√	√
Spousal Support (Divorce Act)	√
Spousal Support (Family Law Act)	√	√
Dividing Property and Debt (Family Law Act)	√	√

Resolving family law problems
Family law problems can be resolved through negotiation, mediation, collaborative settlement processes and arbitration without going to court. If a couple can’t resolve these problems themselves, they may have to go to court to have a judge resolve their problems for them. 

Going to court
There are two courts that deal with family law problems, Family Court, a division of the Provincial Court, and the Supreme Court. Family Court doesn’t charge court fees and its rules are simplified and easy to understand. The rules of the Supreme Court can be very complicated and fees are charged to file certain documents and schedule certain hearings. However, the Supreme Court can deal with many family law problems that Family Court can’t:

• Family Court: Family Court can deal with issues about guardianship and the care of children, child support and spousal support. Family Court can only deal with issues under the Family Law Act.
• Supreme Court: The Supreme Court can deal with all of these issues as well as divorce and the division of property and debt between married spouses and unmarried spouses who have lived together for at least two years. The Supreme Court can deal with issues under the Divorce Act and the Family Law Act. 

Family law words and phrases
Before you move on to the other scripts on family law, here are definitions of some common words and phrases used in these scripts.

• Access: A parent’s time with a child, usually fixed by a schedule. Access is a term used in the federal Divorce Act.
• Application: A formal request for a court order.
• Arbitration: A process in which a family law dispute is resolved by a neutral arbitrator after a formal hearing.
• Case Conference: An informal meeting with a judge to review the issues in a court case and explore options for settlement. In Family Court, a “Family Case Conference.” In the Supreme Court, a “Judicial Case Conference.”
• Child: Any person under the age of 19, the age of majority in British Columbia. May include adult children for the purposes of child support. The Divorce Act uses the term “child of the marriage.”
• Child Support: Money paid by one parent to the other for the financial support of their children.
• Child Support Guidelines: A federal regulation, in force throughout Canada, that talks about how child support is calculated.
• Collaborative Settlement Processes: A kind of negotiation in which the parties and their lawyers sign an agreement to do everything they can to resolve a family law dispute without going to court, often with the assistance of divorce counsellors, child psychologists and financial experts.
• Consent Order: An order that the parties to a court case agree the court should make.
• Contact with a Child: A person’s time with a child, usually fixed by a schedule. Contact is a term used in the provincial Family Law Act.
• Court Case: A court proceeding. Also called an “action” or a “lawsuit”. 
• Custody: A parent’s right to have the child live in his or her home and to make decisions about the care of the child. Custody is a terms used in the Divorce Act.
• Divorce: The legal end of a marriage by a court order.
• Divorce Act: A federal law that talks about divorce, custody of and access to children, child support and spousal support.
• Excluded Property: Property owned by a spouse before the spouses began to live together or marry, plus certain kinds of property acquired afterwards like gifts and inheritances, that is excluded from family property. Excluded property is a term used in the Family Law Act.
• Family Debt: Debt incurred by either or both spouses during their relationship. Family debt is a term used in the Family Law Act.
• Family Property: Property owned by one or both either or both spouses at the end of a relationship. Family property is a term used in the Family Law Act.
• Family Court: A division of the Provincial Court of British Columbia which deals with family law issues under the Family Law Act.
• Family Justice Counsellor: A Family Court staff member trained in mediation and available to help with issues about the care and control of children, child support and spousal support.
• Family Law Act: A provincial law that talks about guardianship, parenting arrangements, contact with a child, child support, spousal support and the division of property and debt. 
• Guardianship: The right to make parenting decisions for a child and the right to get information from and give instructions to the important people involved in a child’s life, such as teachers, doctors, counsellors and coaches. Guardianship is a term used in the Family Law Act.
• Hearing: A formal meeting with a judge for a conference, to argue an application or for a trial.
• Interim Application: An application for an interim order.
• Interim Order: An order made after a court case has begun but before it has ended by a trial or a settlement. Interim orders are temporary but last until they are changed by another interim order or until trial or settlement.
• Litigation: A process for resolving a dispute through the court system, which starts with service of the court forms describing the legal claim and concludes with either a settlement or a trial.
• Married Spouse: Someone who has been legally married to someone else.
• Mediation: A voluntary, formal bargaining process in which the parties try to resolve a family law dispute with the assistance of a neutral mediator.
• Negotiation: A voluntary, informal process in which the parties try to resolve a family law dispute by bargaining with each other.
• Order: The mandatory direction of a judge.
• Parent: Someone who is the natural parent of a child, the adopted parent of a child or, in certain circumstances, a donor of eggs or sperm and a surrogate mother.
• Parental Responsibilities: Decisions about the upbringing and care of a child made by the child’s guardians. Parental responsibilities is a term used in the Family Law Act.
• Parenting Arrangements: The arrangements made in an order or agreement for parental responsibilities and parenting time. Parenting arrangements is a term used in the Family Law Act.
• Parenting Time: A guardian’s time with a child, usually fixed by a schedule. Parenting time is a term used in the Family Law Act.
• Payor: Someone who is obliged to pay child support or spousal support to someone else, the “recipient,” as a result of a court order or written agreement.
• Property: Anything that has value, such as a house, a bank account, a company, clothing, the contents of the family home and any other asset.
• Separation: The breakdown of a romantic relationship. Separation may mean that a couple have moved out and are living apart from each other, but it is possible to be separated and while continuing to live under the same roof.
• Separation Agreement: A written agreement recording a settlement of the issues arising from a couple’s separation.
• Settlement: The resolution of a legal dispute by the agreement of the parties. May be recorded in a written agreement or in a consent order.
• Spousal Support: Money paid by one spouse to the other to help pay for that spouse’s living expenses.
• Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines: An academic paper which describes mathematical formulas that can be used to calculate the amount of spousal support payable, when a spouse is entitled to receive it, and the length of time it should be paid for.
• Spouse: A married spouse or an unmarried spouse.
• Stepparent: Someone who is the spouse of a parent.
• Supreme Court: British Columbia’s superior court which deals with family law issues under the common law, the Family Relations Act and the Divorce Act. 
• Recipient: Someone who is entitled to receive child support or spousal support from someone else, the “payor,” as a result of a court order or written agreement.
• Trial: The resolution of a court case by presenting evidence and argument to a judge.
• Unmarried Spouse: A person who has lived with someone else in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years. For the purpose of claims for spousal support, includes people who have lived together for less than two years and have had a child together.

More information:

• See other Dial-A-Law scripts in this family series for more detail. 
• Check the Family Law Act and Family Relations Act available at www.bclaws.ca. 
• Also check the Divorce Act at http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

[updated March 2013]

Dial-A-Law© is a library of legal information available by:

• phone, as recorded scripts, and
• audio and text, on the CBA BC Branch website.

To access Dial-A-Law, call 604.687.4680 in the lower mainland or 1.800.565.5297 elsewhere in BC. Dial-A-Law is available online at www.dialalaw.org.

The Dial-A-Law library is prepared by lawyers and gives practical information on many areas of law in British Columbia. Dial-A-Law is funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia and sponsored by the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.

© Copyright 1983-2013 The Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch