If you need to choose a court

 

Do you need to go to Provincial (Family) Court or Supreme Court?

Figuring out which court you should go to is an important first step in any family law case. In BC, the Supreme Court and the Provincial Court handle some of the same types of cases. But procedures, time frames, costs, and the kinds of orders granted differ. This chart sets out some similarities and differences to help you decide which court would be better for your situation.

Note: If you or the other party have already started a court action, you must generally go back to the same court to change the order or take further action. Get legal advice if you want to go to a different court.

Provincial Court	Supreme Court
You can go to Provincial Court if...	You can go to Supreme Court if...
you want child support	you want child support
you want custody	you want custody
you want access	you want access
you want spousal support	you want spousal support
you want guardianship	you want guardianship
you want maintenance enforcement	you want maintenance enforcement
	you have property you want the court to divide or protect
	you want a divorce or an annulment
	your case involves an adoption
	your former partner lives outside BC*
your case will require the use of the Family Relations Act only	your case will require the use of the Divorce Act alone or the Divorce Act and/or the Family Relations Act
you want a restraining order (for example, an order restricting contact with the other party and/or his or her children)	you want any type of restraining order (including orders restricting disposal of property)
*You may be able to go to Provincial Court if your former partner lives outside BC, but the law is not straightforward on this. If your former partner lives outside BC, ask a lawyer about your particular situation first.
Provincial Court has...	Supreme Court has...
an informal atmosphere	a formal atmosphere
more court locations	fewer court locations
minimal paperwork (compared to the Supreme Court)	lots of paperwork
fewer rules	many rules
lawyers representing people but many people representing themselves as well	mainly lawyers representing people
rules that allow you to give spoken evidence about your case for either an interim or final order	rules that say you must give written evidence about your case (for example, in an Affidavit) to get an initial (interim) order
no filing or trial fees	significant filing fees to start your case ($208) and then to apply for an interim order ($62); significant trial fees to get a final order
no ability to award costs	the ability to award costs (the judge/master can order that the other party pay your legal and filing fees)

Note: An initial order is a kind of interim order. The word "interim" refers to any order made before a trial and intended to be temporary.

Using both courts

In some situations, you may use both courts. For instance, you can go to Provincial Court to get a custody order, and then to Supreme Court to get a divorce. Although dealing with two separate courts may complicate matters, it may be easier in some ways (for example, less paperwork) — particularly if you get all the final orders you can in Provincial Court. But dealing with two separate courts can be a problem if issues about children and support are in different courts or in both courts at once.