Navigating your way through the Legal System is a large and intimidating task. When you walk into to a world where you are dealing with terms such as parenting time, access, primary residence, child support and childs best interest ,you can leave with your head spinning.
There are several different requirements and options,with the issue of children and parents separation. If there is abuse involved women can access legal aid for approval, to have a lawyer assist them ,with working out parenting time and primary residence, of the children. There are financial factors to take into account. Legal Aid will look at you income level to determine, if you are eligible for their services, depending on your income you may have to pay a partial amount for your lawyer or may not be eligible for legal aid at all.
The provincial court houses make their forms very user friendly,so if you are not eligible or can not afford a lawyer, you can access the court house on your own and fill out the forms yourself. There is no cost to fill out and file papers in provincial court. When filing court papers for parenting time or child support, the parents are required to attend a Parenting After Separation Course, before a court date can be set. While both parents are required to attend the course, only one parent has to attend the course before the court date can be set. This prevents one parent from stalling, the other one, if one parent is resistant to going to court.
Supreme court is more complex than provincial court. It is used if the children live or have moved to another province or country with a parent. Supreme court has become more user friendly in the last couple of years, it is still a very complex system, it is highly recommended to have a lawyer, when going to supreme court. The paper work that needs to be filed for supreme court have financial costs attached to them.
The court process can take several months to complete, there are several court dates that are usually set, before a order is reached. This is especially true if the parents are in conflict about the conditions they want the judge to set regarding, parenting time, child support and the primary residence of the child. The judge may offer a family case conference, to see if the parents can reach a agreement. A family case conference is when the parents, their lawyers (if they have lawyers) and the judge sit down privately together to see if the parents can reach a agreement.If the parents are unsuccessful with the family case conference, the case proceeds through the courts, the judge will hear evidence and make the final decision.
Some parents want to avoid the court process all together and try to work out a agreement, with the help of a family mediator. This service is provided by the courts to help cut down on the amount of time the courts are spending on family separation cases. The parents can sit down together or at separate times with the family mediator to work out a agreement. Once a agreement is reached, it is filed with the courts and becomes legal and binding.This process is not recommended when there is a history of abuse and violence in a relationship, as it is not a equal process, when someone is trying to negotiate with their abuser.
Parenting After Seperation is a 3 hour course that is set up through the court system to give parents information and tools to look at the best interest of the children, as they all go through the
www.lss.bc
services society, legal. InstancebeginEditable. 2012. legal services society of b.cWeb. 5 Jan 2013. <www.lss.bc.ca/publications>.
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