What the Family Courts of Canada does
Family courts decide the legal fallout of relationships — divorce under the federal Divorce Act, parenting arrangements (decision-making responsibility and parenting time, on the best interests of the child), child support under the federal tables, spousal support, and property division under each province's regime. They also grant protective orders — restraining orders and their provincial equivalents — and enforce their own orders. The modern process runs through staged conferences (case, settlement, trial-management) where judges push resolution, with motions for issues that cannot wait and trials for the residue that will not settle. Mandatory information programs, on-site mediation services and duty counsel wrap around the process in most provinces.
What it hears
- Divorce and its corollary relief — parenting, child support, spousal support
- Parenting arrangements for married and unmarried parents alike
- Child support under the Federal Child Support Guidelines, and its variation and enforcement
- Family property and equalization claims under provincial regimes
- Restraining and protective orders in family-violence situations
- Child protection proceedings brought by child-welfare agencies
Before your first court date
Financial disclosure is the currency of family court — assemble tax returns, pay statements, account and property records early, because everything (support, property, credibility) runs on it. Complete the mandatory information program promptly where your province requires one. Try the resolution routes that fit safely — mediation and collaborative processes settle most families — but where there is family violence, protection comes first and the safe-process exceptions exist for you. Write a parenting chronology while memory is fresh. And calendar the deadlines that bite — response times on served applications, and property limitation clocks like Ontario's 2-years-from-divorce equalization bar.
What happens at your first appearance
Expect a conference, not a courtroom drama — a case conference before a judge who has read the file, wants the issues narrowed, and will say aloud how the contested points usually land. Come with your forms filed, disclosure exchanged and positions realistic; costs consequences attach to unreasonable conduct. Urgent matters run differently — motions, sometimes without notice where safety demands it, produce interim orders that hold the fort. Children are not brought to court; their views arrive through assessments and children's counsel where ordered.
What to prepare
- Complete financial disclosure — tax returns, pay evidence, accounts, property and debt records
- The required court forms for your province, filed and served on time
- A parenting chronology — who did what, the current schedule, the proposed one
- Any safety evidence — police reports, messages, medical records — where protection is sought
- Proof of the mandatory information program where required, and a notebook for directions
When to get legal advice
This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Family court decides the things people care most about — children, homes, income — on rules with real traps (limitation clocks, disclosure obligations, relocation notice). Legal Hotline's free line explains the process and the clocks any hour on 1-855-529-1555 — and a one-hour consultation with a Canadian family lawyer (C$295, the total, nothing added) can be booked right on the call, for one step or the whole map.
Where it is
Family matters are heard wherever the superior and provincial courts sit — unified family courts across much of Ontario and in several other provinces combine the jurisdictions under one roof, while elsewhere the split runs superior court for divorce and property, provincial court for parenting and support. Your application or served documents name the courthouse and stream.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to go to court at all to sort out our separation?
No — most separating couples never see a courtroom. A separation agreement negotiated directly, through mediation or with collaborative lawyers, covering parenting, support and property, is binding when properly made with disclosure and advice, and the divorce itself can then proceed on paperwork. Court is the backstop for what cannot be agreed — and for safety, where its urgent powers matter.
How fast can I get an order if my children or I are unsafe?
Fast — this is what the urgent lanes exist for. Restraining orders and their provincial equivalents (emergency protection orders in several provinces) can issue quickly, sometimes the same day and without notice to the other person, alongside urgent parenting orders. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911 first; then the free line can explain the urgent pathway in your province tonight.
What happens if the other side hides income or ignores disclosure?
The court has teeth for exactly this — disclosure orders, costs awards, striking pleadings against persistent non-disclosers, and imputed income where the numbers do not add up (support gets calculated on what a party should earn or is hiding, not what they admit). Document the gaps and pursue them through the conference process; family judges have seen every version of the vanishing bonus.
Will my child have to speak to the judge?
Almost never in the courtroom. Children's views enter through assessments by professionals or through children's counsel (like Ontario's Office of the Children's Lawyer) where the court orders it, weighted by age and maturity. Keeping children out of the litigation — off the phone calls, away from the affidavits — is both the norm and one of the things judges notice most about each parent.