The Ontario Superior Court has the sole jurisdiction over divorce and property issues and, along with the Ontario Court of Justice, can also hear cases involving parenting issues, financial support for spouses and children and urgent safety issues. The Ontario Court of Justice has the sole jurisdiction over child protection cases and adoptions.

In 25 locations throughout Ontario, there is a Family Court Branch, of the Superior Court of Justice. Sometimes called a Unified Family Court, or UFC, the Family Court unifies the jurisdiction of the Ontario Court of Justice and Superior Court of Justice and can hear all family cases, including cases involving divorce, property, parenting, contact, support, child protection and adoption.

You can find a Family Court Branch in the following locations:

Barrie • Belleville • Bracebridge • Brockville • Cayuga • Cobourg • Cornwall • Hamilton • Kingston • Kitchener • Lindsay • London • L’Orignal • Napanee • Newmarket • Oshawa • Ottawa • Peterborough • Pembroke • Perth • Picton • St. Catharines • St. Thomas • Simcoe • Welland

For information about court locations, see: Ontario court locations, service hours and contacts | Ontario.ca

There are many family law services connected to courthouses in your community.

On this page:

• Mandatory Information Program (MIP)
• Family Law Information Centre (FLIC)
• Legal Aid Ontario advice lawyers and duty counsel
• Court-connected mediation
• Supervised access centres
• Interpreters

Mandatory Information Program (MIP)

The parties in most family law court cases must attend a Mandatory Information Program, or MIP. During these sessions, family law professionals will give you information about the court process, the options available to help you resolve your dispute, and the effects of separation on children and adults.

When you file your application with the court, you will be given information about scheduling and attending a MIP.

For information about what happens at a MIP session see Steps to Justice or the Ministry of the Attorney General website.

Family Law Information Centre (FLIC)

There are Family Law Information Centres (FLICs) at each Superior Court of Justice where family cases are heard. Staff at the FLIC can:

• provide information about the court process
• provide information about family mediation and other ways to solve your issues
• refer you to services in your community

For more information, go to: Family Law Information Centres | ontario.ca

Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) advice lawyers and duty counsel

If your income is low, Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) has advice lawyers and duty counsel who may be available to give you free legal advice and assistance at court, or who can refer you to other Legal Aid services.

You can call your local court office or Legal Aid’s summary advice telephone service at 1-800-668-8258 to see what services are available in your community.

Court-connected mediation

Even if your case is already in court, you are encouraged to settle your issues on consent through mediation whenever possible.

Parties in a family court case may receive free, day-of-court mediation, regardless of their income.

Mediation is a voluntary, confidential way to resolve family law issues. If you and the other side agree to use mediation, a family mediator can work together with you to reach an agreement.

There are many benefits to the mediation process, especially for family law issues. For example:

• Both sides work together to resolve disagreements.
• Mediators are trained to help you and the other side communicate and negotiate better, which can help in the short and long term.
• The focus of mediation is for you and the other side to create your own solutions.
• Mediation can be more affordable. Subsidized mediation services are available based on your income.
• Mediation can be less stressful than the court process.

A mediator will first meet with each side separately to make sure you both want to participate and to ensure that the process will be safe for everyone.

Then the mediator will usually arrange meetings with both sides together, although there are options for you to participate from different rooms (known as shuttle mediation). The mediator will help you identify solutions that can meet both your interests.

Family mediators do not:

• make decisions about how to resolve your issues; or
• provide legal advice.

It is important that you and the other party get the legal advice you need to make informed decisions about your agreement.

The judge in your case may order you to do an intake with a court-connected mediation service, where you will learn about how mediation can help you to resolve your issues, and other helpful community resources.

Information about free and subsidized mediation services can be found at the FLIC, or on the Ministry of the Attorney General’s website at: www.ontario.ca/page/family-mediation-service-providers.

Supervised access centres

Supervised parenting time can be arranged if there are safety concerns during visits or parenting time exchanges. Supervised parenting time means someone else must be present when you visit your children or when exchanges occur. Parents can agree on a supervised parenting time agreement, or it can be required by the court.

Supervised Access Centres provide a place where parenting visits and exchanges can take place under the supervision of trained staff and volunteers. You can only access these services if you get a court order.

Supervised Access Centres provide both on-site and virtual services.

Interpreters

The Ministry of the Attorney General only provides interpreters for free if you:

• have a low income
• require a French-speaking interpreter
• use sign language
• a judge orders it

If you or any of your witnesses require an interpreter and you meet the above criteria, you need to let the court know well in advance of your trial date.

All other parties are responsible for arranging and paying for their own court-approved interpreter.

See the Ministry of the Attorney General website for more information court interpreters.

On this page:

• Accessibility coordinators
• Family Court Support Workers (Family Violence)
• Indigenous Family Court Workers

Accessibility coordinators

If you have issues accessing the court or participating in a court event because of a disability, you can get assistance from the court’s Accessibility Coordinator. Accessibility coordinators can help arrange for accommodations, such as equipment or services, when you visit the court in-person or online.

For more information about what accessibility coordinators do, visit the Ministry of the Attorney General Website.

Family Court Support Workers (Family Violence)

If you have experienced family violence and are going through the family court process, you may be able to get help from a family court support worker who will:

• provide information about the family court process
• help you prepare for family court proceedings
• refer you to other specialized services and supports in the community
• help with safety planning, such as getting to and from court safely
• accompany you to court proceedings, where appropriate

For more information about family court support workers and how to find one in your area, see the Ministry of the Attorney General website.

Indigenous Family Court Workers

Indigenous Family Court Workers support indigenous community members involved in the family court process by:

• providing legal information about court procedures
• assisting in securing legal counsel, including help with Legal Aid Ontario applications
• assisting with referrals to community resources and interpretation services
• supporting community members at court attendances

Ask at your local FLIC office if there is an Indigenous Family Court Worker at your court.

Whenever possible, courts must consider children’s views and preferences when resolving parenting cases.

Sometimes the court will ask for the assistance of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer (OCL), so that a neutral professional can present the children’s perspective to the court.

The OCL can provide:

• legal representation for the child(ren)
• an investigation about the parenting issues
• a report about the views of the child (voice of the child report)

Once the judge asks the OCL to assist in a case, the parties need to complete an intake form which is available at: http://ontariocourtforms.on.ca/en/office-of-the-childrens-lawyer-forms/.

The OCL will then decide if they can assist with the case and what service they can provide.

For more information about the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, see the Ministry of the Attorney General website.

The Divorce Act and the Children’s Law Reform Act require you to try to resolve your family issues outside of the court, if possible. There are different types of alternative dispute resolution processes to help you, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, collaborative law and parenting coordinators. These may not always be appropriate if you are at risk due to family violence.

On this page:

• Parenting Plans
• Negotiation
• Mediation
• Mediation-arbitration
• Collaborative family law
• Parenting Coordination

Parenting Plans

When parents come to an agreement outside of court, it is best to document the arrangement in a parenting plan.

The Parenting Plan Tool from the Department of Justice and the Parenting Plan Guide and Template from AFCC-Ontario are two tools to help parents create their own parenting plans.

For more information about creating a parenting plan, see CLEO’s Steps to Justice.

Negotiation

Negotiations are discussions where you and the other side try to sort out your dispute and come to an agreement. If you can’t negotiate directly because of a bail restriction or for any other reason, you may be able to negotiate through lawyers or a neutral person.

If you can reach an agreement, you need to put the terms that you have agreed to in writing. If you haven’t started a court case, the written agreement that should be prepared is called a Separation Agreement. If a court case has been started, your written agreement is called Minutes of Settlement.

It is important to note that a Separation Agreement may not be enforced by a court if a party did not share all the relevant financial information (financial disclosure) when the agreement was made. Also, it is always best for each of you to get independent legal advice before the agreement is signed to make sure you understand your rights and obligations.

Community Legal Education of Ontario (CLEO) has information on how to negotiate an agreement outside of court and how to make a separation agreement.

Mediation

Mediation is a voluntary, confidential way to resolve family law issues. If you and the other side agree to use mediation, a family mediator can work together with you to resolve your dispute.

There are many benefits to the mediation process, especially for family issues. For example:

• Both sides work together to resolve disagreements.
• Mediators are trained to help you and the other side communicate and negotiate better, which can help in the short and long term.
• The focus in mediation is for you and the other side to create your own solutions.
• Mediation can be more affordable.
• Mediation can also be less stressful than the court process.

Family mediators do not:

• make decisions about how to resolve your issues; or
• provide legal advice.

It is important that you and the other party get the legal advice you need to make informed decisions about your agreement.

Information about free and subsidized mediation services can be found at the Family Law Information Centres (FLIC) at every court location where family cases are heard, or on the Ministry of the Attorney General’s website.

Mediation-arbitration

In some communities in Ontario, paid mediation-arbitration services are available as another way to help people resolve their family law issues.

The steps for this process are:

• First, a mediation-arbitration agreement must be signed before you begin, which includes confirmation that you’ve received independent legal advice.
• Once this document is signed, a professional mediator will help you and the other side agree on your issues and then put them into a written agreement.

If your issues aren’t settled in mediation, you will then begin a separate arbitration process, usually with the same professional. In arbitration, you present your case to the arbitrator and respond to the other side’s case. The other side does the same.

• After the hearing is finished, the arbitrator makes a decision which is called a family arbitration award. The arbitration award must be followed by both you and the other side, and it can be enforced by the Court.
• If either side believes that the arbitrator has made a mistake, you may be able to appeal the decision.

You can find more information on family arbitrations, including mediation-arbitrations, on the Ministry of the Attorney General website.

Collaborative family law

Collaborative family law is an approach to resolving family disputes cooperatively. With collaborative family law, you, the other side, and both of your lawyers must agree in advance in writing that while you are negotiating cooperatively, you will not go to court. You also agree in advance that if this cooperative approach fails, neither of the lawyers will be able to represent you in the court process.

Your lawyers then work together with you and the other side to exchange information and develop an understanding of your needs and expectations.

Once you have this information, you are encouraged to find ways to resolve your issues by agreement. The agreements you make using this team problem-solving approach are then put into a separation agreement.

Where you are unable to come to an agreement through collaborative family law, you can still go to court, but you will need to pay a different lawyer to represent you.

Information about how to find a collaborative family lawyer in your community is available at the Ontario Collaborative Law Federation website.

Parenting Coordination

Parenting Coordination is a process for parents who have a history of serious conflict around parenting issues. Parenting coordination can help to reduce conflict through mediation, parent education and arbitration.

A parenting coordinator is usually a mental health professional or lawyer who has experience with high conflict families, child development and patterns of domestic violence.

Parents who already have a court order or parenting agreement setting out how decisions about children are made and a detailed parenting scheduling can hire a parenting coordinator if they have conflicts over how to put them into practice. Parenting coordinators can make decisions about how to interpret the court orders or agreement.

Parenting coordination aims to keep parents out of the court process and helps to improve communication.

You can find more information about Parenting Coordination at CLEO’s Steps to Justice.

On this page:

• Choosing the right court and municipality
• Preparing a court application
• Uncontested trial
• Replying to an answer

Choosing the right court and municipality

Before you issue your application, make sure you are starting your case in the right court and in the right city. Rule 5 of the Family Law Rules tells you where to start your case:

• If the orders you want the court to make include divorce or property issues, you must start your case in a Superior Court of Justice (including the Family Court).
• If your application only deals with parenting claims or support, you may choose to start your case in the Ontario Court of Justice if there is one in your community.
• Your family law case will usually be heard in the courthouse in the municipality where you or the other party live. If you are making a parenting claim, you must start the application in the municipality where the child lives.
• If there is an immediate danger to the health and safety of you or your child, or your child is at risk of being taken from Ontario, you can start your case in any municipality.

Preparing a court application

Rule 8 the Family Law Rules tells you how to start a family law court case.

If you do not already have any final court orders, the first step in a court case is to prepare a court form, called an application. You use this form to request the orders that you want the court to make (your claims) and provide the facts that support your request.

You must decide which application you need:

If the only claim you are making is for a divorce, you should file a Form 8A: Simple Application (divorce only). You cannot make any other claim in a simple application.

If you and the other party agree on all the claims you are making, including a divorce and any other issues  you should file a Form 8A: Joint Application.

If you and the other party cannot agree on how to resolve some of the issues, you should file a Form 8: General Application.

The person who makes the initial application is called the applicant, and the other person is called the respondent.

For step by step information about how to start a family court case and the other forms you may need to fill out, go to:  CLEO’s Steps To Justice: “How do I start a family law court case?”

You can also find this information at the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to procedures in a family law case: starting your family case.

For step by step information about how to apply for a simple divorce with no other claims, or joint divorce together with your ex spouse, go to Steps To Justice: Separation and Divorce

Uncontested trial

Once your application has been served, the other party has 30 days (or 60 days if outside Canada or the United States) to prepare, serve you with, and file with the court a Form 10: Answer, which is their response to the claims made in your application.

If the other party has not served and filed their answer within timeline and has not asked for more time to do so, you can take steps to have an uncontested trial. This means that the court will decide your case based only on your evidence.

You must fill out Form 23C: Affidavit for Uncontested Trial. This form is a commissioned document, meaning you must sign it in front of a lawyer or commissioner of oaths to swear or affirm that what it says is true. A clerk at the courthouse can commission your affidavit if you do not have a lawyer.

You must also attach a draft Form 25: Order (General) and include all the orders you are asking the judge to make.

Remember, the judge can only make an order if you included the request in your application, and the judge is satisfied that the evidence supports your request.

Your case may be scheduled for an uncontested hearing in court. You can also file these documents at the court using a 14B Motion Form and ask the judge to make a decision in writing, without you having to attend court.

Replying to an answer

If you’ve started a court application and the other side serves you with a Form 10: Answer, you have 10 days to respond by filling out a Form 10A: Reply, serving it on the other side and filing it with the court. The Reply gives you a chance to comment on any new claims or issues that the other side raises in their answer. It is not a chance for you to bring up any new issues.

For more information on how to reply to an answer, see Steps to Justice: Steps in a Family Case: Prepare your Reply

Rule 10 of the Family Law Rules tells you about how to answer an application.

If you have been served with a family law application, you have 30 days (or 60 days if you live outside the Canada and the United States) to prepare, serve on the other party and file with the court your answer using a Form 10: Answer.

In your answer, you can agree or disagree with the applicant’s claims and provide the facts that support your position. You also use this form to make your own request for court orders (your claims) and explain the facts that support your request.

The party who has started an application is called the applicant and the person who receives the application is called the respondent.

For step by step information about how to answer a family case, and the other documents you may need to fill out, go to CLEO’s Steps to Justice: How do I respond to a family court case?

You can also find this information at Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to procedures in a family law case: Answering an Application.

Rule 6 of the Family Law Rules tells you how to serve documents in a family court case.

Before you can file any documents with the court, you first need to serve your documents, which means giving a copy of the document to the other parties in the case.

Once you have served your documents, in order to file them with the court you must file proof of service. A Form 6B: Affidavit of Service or 6B Lawyer or Paralegal’s Certificate of Service must be completed by the person who served your documents. This form tells the court who served the documents, and where and how the documents were served.

Proof of service assures the court, all the other parties have had an opportunity to know about what is happening in the case and present their side to the court before any orders are made.

In some exceptional circumstances you can ask the court for a temporary court order, and you do not need to serve the other side in advance. These are emergency situations where notifying the other side would have serious consequences on the health and safety of a party or child, or where it is not reasonably possible or necessary to notify the other party in the circumstances. For more information about emergency motions without notice, see Rule 14(12) of the Family Law Rules.

For information on serving documents, see the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to procedures in a family law case: Serving Your Documents.

On this page:

• Filing online through the portal
• Limited filing in paper at the court counter or by email
• What to name your electronic documents

Filing online through the portal

Parties are now expected to file most family forms through the Family Submissions Online Portal.

There are benefits to filing your materials online:

• Your do not need to file your original documents in person.
• You can pay for any filing fees securely online.
• When filing the documents online, an email confirmation will be sent to confirm that the court has received the document.
• Once the documents have been processed, an additional email will be sent to let you know if the documents have been accepted or rejected for filing.

Certain documents cannot be filed through the online portal:

• Documents related to adoption, secure treatment and openness under the Child Youth and Family Services Act
• Documents relating to writs of seizure and sale under Rule 28 of the Family Law Rules
• Documents in support of a sealing motion or subject to a sealing order

Go to the Ministry of the Attorney General website for more information about how to file your documents through the online portal.

Limited filing in paper at the court counter or by email

If you do not have a lawyer and cannot file online through the portal, or if you case is time-sensitive or urgent (less than five days away), you can file paper documents at the courthouse or electronically at the e-mail addresses indicated in each region’s Practice Direction.

What to name your electronic documents

When documents are submitted to the court in an electronic format, the document name must be saved as follows:

• Document type including the form number
• Type of party submitting the document
• Name of the party submitting the document (including initials if the name is not unique to the case)
• Date on which the document was created or signed, in the format DD-MMM-YYYY (e.g. 12-JAN-2021)

For example, documents should be saved as follows:

• Financial Statement Form 13.1 – Respondent – A. Wong – 21-NOV-2021
• Case Conference Brief Form 17A – Applicant – G. Singh – 13-MAR-2022
• Affidavit for Divorce Form 36 – Applicant – Nathanson – 12-JAN-2023

Please review the Superior Court of Justice’s Consolidated Provincial Practice Directions for up-to-date information about how to file your court documents.

Case Center is an online platform that parties, counsel, and judges must use to read electronic documents while they are at court. Case Center is used whether the court appearance is virtual or in person.

Case Center ensures that everyone – including the judge – has access to all the documents for the case. It also makes it easy to direct others to the page you are talking about.

Court endorsements and orders as well as Zoom court information will be uploaded to Case Center, so you should check your account when you receive an email that a new document has been uploaded to your case.

Case Center help

If you are representing yourself at court, the Ministry of the Attorney General offers telephone and email support for Case Center. Please dial 1-800-980-4962 or 647-438-0403 and select option 4 for Case Center support or email your questions to info.Case Center@ontario.ca.

Support is available from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Monday to Friday).

For the Court’s direction about how and when to use Case Center, along with helpful tips and supports, see the Superior Court of Justice Consolidated Provincial Practice Directions for Family Proceedings and the Court’s Case Center page: https://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/Case Center/

On this page:

• Financial Statements
• Documents showing your property, savings, and debts
• Automatic Orders, Rule 8.0.1

When your case involves claims for child support and expenses, spousal support, or property division, you must normally provide the other party and the court with information and documentation about your finances. This is called financial disclosure.

Your financial disclosure obligations are set out at Rule 13 of the Family Law Rules and Section 21 of the Child Support Guidelines.

It is very important for the parties to provide financial disclosure as soon as possible. This is because:

• giving the other party a full picture of your financial situation is a basic step in resolving your support and property issues;
• if you do not give the other party your financial disclosure, it can delay the resolution of your case and add to your costs;
• if you have not provided your disclosure as required by Rule 13, a judge can order you to pay all or part of the other party’s legal costs; and
• in some cases, if you don’t provide the required disclosure, a judge might decide the case without your input by ignoring (striking) your court papers.

Financial Statements

If your case involves financial issues, there are two types of financial statements that the parties must complete, serve on the other party and file with the court.

• Use Form 13: Financial Statement (Support Claims), if your case involves child support or spousal support, but not property issues. Do not use this form if you are making a claim regarding property or debts.
• Use Form 13.1: Financial Statement (Property and Support Claims), if your case involves claims regarding property or debts (with or without support issues).

These are commissioned documents, meaning that you must sign the financial statement in front of a lawyer or commissioner of oaths to swear or affirm that what it says is true. A clerk at the courthouse can commission your affidavit if you do not have a lawyer.

Documents showing your property, savings, and debts

In addition to their financial statements, the parties must also give each other documents showing their income, property, savings, and debts.

For details on the types of documents you must show to support your financial statements, see the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to procedures in a family law case: supporting financial documents.

Automatic Orders, Rule 8.0.1

In most family cases, when you issue your application or your motion to change, the court will issue an automatic order, Form 8.0.1, which you must give to the other party. The automatic order sets out the basic documents each party must provide to the other as part of your disclosure obligations in a family court case.

A party who has not made all efforts to comply with these obligations prior to the case conference may have to pay the other party’s legal costs in preparing for the conference.

Gathering, serving on the other side and filing with the court all these financial documents can be difficult, but you must follow these rules.

For information about financial disclosure, how to complete, serve, file, and update your financial disclosure documents, see the Government of Ontario’s Guide to procedures in a family law cases, Financial Disclosure.

See also Steps to Justice What is a financial statement? What documents do I have to give my partner?

There are a number of steps that are required in most family court cases before you can schedule a trial:

• Mandatory Information Program (MIP)
• first appearance (if you are at a unified Family Court branch)
• case conference
• settlement conference
• trial scheduling and trial management conferences

Many of these steps encourage you and the other party to organize your case, exchange your documents early, and to settle as many issues as possible to avoid the cost and stress of a trial.

To learn about what happens at each of these steps in a family law case, see the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to procedures in a family law case: Required steps in a family court case.

For an interactive flow chart of the steps in a family law case, see Steps to Justice: Steps in a family law case.

If your case is at the Family Court branch of the Superior Court of Justice, unless your case involves divorce, division of property, or an arbitration award, a first court date will be scheduled by the court when the application is issued. This date is called a first appearance.

At a first appearance, the court clerk checks all your documents to make sure they are complete and have been properly served. You will also have an opportunity to discuss settlement or to attempt mediation with the other party. If you can agree on any issues at the first appearance, you can file your agreement with the court and ask for a judge to make an order on consent.

If the case has not been settled and your documents are complete, the first appearance court clerk will normally set a date for a case conference before a judge or a Dispute Resolution Officer.

For all other cases, the first court date will normally be at a conference before a judge or a Dispute Resolution Officer (DRO).

On this page:

• What is a family law conference?
• How do I prepare for a family law conference?
• Page limits, font size and spacing for conference materials
• What to expect at the conference
• Confidentiality
• Orders at a conference
• Costs at a conference

What is a family law conference?

Rule 17 of the Family Law Rules is the main rule that applies to family law conferences, and sets out the process for the three types of conferences in a family law case: case conferences, settlement conferences, and trial management conferences.

A conference is a step in a family case where a judge or a Dispute Resolution Officer meets with you, the other party, and your lawyers if you have them, to discuss:

• the issues that you can agree on
• the issues that you don’t agree on
• the chance of resolving those issues
• how the case should move forward

Each conference is a chance to resolve all or some of the issues, which can save you time and costs.

For an interactive picture of the inside of a family law courtroom at the Superior Court of Justice, see Family Court Illustrations – Steps to Justice

How do I prepare for a family law conference?

It is important to file the right documents in preparation for your conference. That way you can have a meaningful discussion with the judge or Dispute Resolution Officer, and help to resolve your case or move it along.

For information about how to schedule, prepare for, and attend a family law conference, see the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to procedures in a family law case: Steps to attending a conference,

You can also find this information through Steps to Justice:

 – What is a case conference in my family case and what happens at one?

– What is a settlement conference and what happens at one?

– What is a trial management conference in my family case and what happens at one?

Page limits, font size and spacing for conference materials

All documents filed for a family conference must be prepared using at least a 12-point sized font and double spacing.

There court has imposed page limits on the length of the brief you can file for your conference. The limits are 8 pages for a case conference brief and 12 pages for a settlement conference brief, along with permissible attachments.

Do not include long text threads, emails, and/or social media postings. Instead, only the necessary and relevant excerpts from these communications should be attached as exhibits.

You can find a list of permitted attachments that do not count against your page limit in the Superior Court of Justice Consolidated Provincial Practice Directions for Family Proceedings (Part I E1).

What to expect at the conference

According to the court’s guidelines, conferences are normally scheduled in person at the courthouse unless the judge orders otherwise. You should arrive at least 30 minutes before the time your conference is scheduled to begin. This will give you one more chance to discuss your case with the other party, which you are required to do under the Family Law Rules unless there is a court order prohibiting contact or a risk of domestic violence by someone who is not represented by a lawyer.

If your conference is being held virtually, Zoom information will be provided to you either in your Case Center file or by the court’s Trial Coordination Office.

Conferences are usually less formal than a motion or a trial, and everyone can stay seated when speaking. When your conference starts, the judge will explain the process, and will then lead a discussion on the issues in the case. The judge will give you feedback about how those issues might be decided by the Court based on the strengths and weaknesses of your case if your case was to go to trial.

The judge will encourage you to settle all or some of the disputed issues based on that feedback, so you should be prepared to discuss all your issues and how you are willing to resolve them.

Plan to be available for at least a half day. While conferences generally only take up to an hour, in some courts they are scheduled in groups and so you may have to wait for your turn. You can use this time to negotiate with the other party or their lawyer. Even after you have seen the judge, you may be asked to continue to negotiate based on the judge’s suggestions, and then to return to see the judge afterwards.

Confidentiality

Most of the discussions at a case and settlement conference are private settlement discussions and cannot be used later as evidence in your case at a motion or trial. This way, parties are free to talk about all sorts of options to settle their case, including making compromises.

Orders at a conference

If you and the other party agree on an issue at your case conference, the judge will ask you or your lawyers to write out your agreement in a document called Minutes of Settlement. Both parties need to sign this document to show that you understand and consent to it. If the judge approves of your Minutes of Settlement, they may make an order based on your agreement.

Even when parties do not agree, the court can make certain orders at a conference to help move the case along and preserve the parties’ rights. See Subrules 1(7.2) and 17(8) for the kinds of orders that can be made at a conference.

Costs at a conference

If you come unprepared or your conference is postponed because you didn’t follow the rules, not only will you lose this chance to discuss the issues with a judge, but you may even have to pay all or part of the other party’s legal costs.

At certain Superior Court of Justice locations, a Dispute Resolution Officer (DRO) will conduct the first case conferences on Motions to Change and certain court applications.

A DRO is not a judge; a DRO is an experienced family lawyer that has been approved by the Regional Senior Judge. Parties can usually get a date before a DRO more quickly than before a judge.

DROs try to identify, resolve, or settle issues the parties do not agree on by:

• helping the parties come to an agreement on the issues in dispute
• helping the parties get a consent order from the Court if they have reached an agreement on any issues in the case, including financial disclosure and other procedural issues
• helping the parties organize the issues and exchange financial documents so that they are ready to see a judge.

The DRO program currently operates in Toronto, Barrie, Brampton, Durham, Milton, Newmarket, Hamilton, London, St. Catharines, Kitchener, Kingston, and Welland.

For more information about the Dispute Resolution Officer program, see the Superior Court of Justice Provincial Family Practice Directions (Part I E8).

Bringing a motion

In many cases, before the parties can get final orders at a trial or agree on how to settle their case, they will ask the court to make temporary orders about important issues. Examples could include temporary orders about child or spousal support, a parenting schedule, travelling with a child, or who can live in the family home.

Unless your situation is urgent, you cannot bring a motion until after a case conference has been held and there has been a discussion about the issues that are in dispute. You can only bring a motion before a case conference in very limited situations, of urgency or hardship, or where justice requires it. See Rule 14(4.2) for more information.

To get a temporary court order, you need to:

• contact the family court office for a motion date,
• prepare a notice of motion and your evidence,
• serve a copy on the other side, and
• file it with the court.

This process is called bringing a motion. The person bringing the motion is called the moving party. The person responding to the motion is called the responding party.

On the Form 14: Notice of Motion, the moving party will write out in detail the orders they would like the court to make and the date when the parties will argue the motion in court.

If you are bringing a motion, you must also serve on the other side and file with the court a Form: 14A Affidavit. This is where you write out the evidence that supports your position on the motion and attach relevant documents to the form as an “exhibit”. This form is a commissioned document, meaning you must sign it in front of a lawyer or commissioner of oaths to swear or affirm that what it says is true. A clerk at the courthouse can commission your affidavit if you do not have a lawyer.

Responding to a motion

If you have been served with a notice of motion and affidavit, you can respond by serving and filing your own Form 14A: Affidavit, in which you tell the court why you agree or disagree with the orders the other party is asking for and provide your evidence.

If you want the Court to make different orders at the motion, you can serve and file your own Form 14: Notice of Motion and include evidence in your affidavit to support the orders you are asking for. This is called a cross-motion.

The Family Law Rules allow the moving party to file one reply affidavit using a Form 14A: Affidavit. The reply can only address the new issues raised in the other party’s affidavit. It is not a chance for you to bring up any new issues.

In some court locations, the parties may also need to file a Factum or a Summary of Argument. This is the written summary of the key facts from your affidavit, as well as the rules and the laws that apply to your case. The regional Practice Direction where your court is located, or a judge’s order will tell you whether a Factum or a Summary of Argument must be prepared in your case.

How to prepare your motion

For more information about what documents you need to prepare and update for a motion, the timelines for serving and filing your documents, as well as free, online help for filling out some of the forms, see Steps to Justice: Fill out your court forms and Guided Pathways.

You can also find this information online at the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to procedures in a family law case: Motions in Family Court.

Page limits, font size and spacing at the Superior Court of Justice

All documents filed for a family motion must be prepared using at least a 12-point sized font and double spacing.

There court has imposed page limits on the length of the affidavit you can file for your motion. The limits are 12 pages for a regular motion (less than an hour), and 20 pages for a long motion (over an hour). In addition, parties can only attach necessary and relevant evidence, or exhibits, to their affidavit, which are generally expected to be no more than 10 pages.

Do not include long text threads, emails, and/or social media postings. Instead, only the necessary and relevant excerpts from these communications should be attached as exhibits.

You can find a list of permitted attachments that do not count against your page limit in the Superior Court of Justice Consolidated Provincial Practice Directions for Family Proceedings (Part I F2).

On this page:

• Attending your motion
• How to behave in court
• Orders and endorsements

Attending your motion

If your case is scheduled in person, you may be required to sign in with the court registrar. The judge normally has a list of motions scheduled so you may have to wait for your turn. Some judges deal with the quickest motions first, so you should let the court registrar know if you and the other party have come to an agreement or if you don’t expect the other party to attend the motion.

Arrive at least 30 minutes before the time your conference is scheduled to begin. This will give you one more chance to discuss your case with the other party, which you are required to do under the Family Law Rules (unless there is court order prohibiting contact.)

If your motion is being held virtually, Zoom information will be provided to you either in your Case Center file or by the court’s Trial Coordination Office.

If the other party agrees, you can also meet with the court-connected mediator to try working together to resolve the issues in your motion.

During the motion, the parties take turns explaining what orders you are asking the Court to make, and the evidence that you are relying upon in support of your request. This is known as making your submissions.

In your submissions, you can only refer to the evidence that you have included in your motion materials or evidence that has been filed by the other party. In other words, the judge cannot consider information that is not in any affidavit or sworn financial statement.

When hearing a motion, the judge will normally hear first from the moving party and then from the responding party. The moving party will have one opportunity to reply to any new issues raised by the responding party. The judge may also have questions for you during this process.

How to behave in court

A motion is a more formal court event. Whether you are in person or at a remote hearing, you will be expected to follow the rules of courtroom etiquette:

1. Turn off all electronic devices that aren’t being used in the hearing.
2. Stand up when the judge enters or leaves the hearing room and when you are speaking to the judge.
3. Refer to the judge as “Your Honour” and ask the judge for permission to speak before you begin speaking.
4. Always speak directly to the judge, not to the other party, except if you are examining a witness.
5. During the trial, don’t interrupt other people except to object to an inappropriate question.
6. Don’t argue with the other party or the judge.
7. Pay careful attention to what is being said. You can take notes while you are in court.
8. If you want to use your own recording device, you must get permission from the court first.
9. Don’t eat food or chew gum. Only water is allowed in the courtroom.
10. Refer to any witness by their title (such as Doctor or Professor) or by their identified pronouns. Don’t use their first name.
11. Any documents you wish to give to the judge must be handed to the court registrar.

Orders and endorsements

At the end of the hearing, the judge may make a temporary order that stays in place while you and the other party continue to try to resolve your family law issues on a final basis. The judge may decide right away, or they may reserve their decision to a later time. The judge’s written decision is called an endorsement. Normally the successful party prepares a draft order based on the judge’s endorsement, serves it on all other parties for their approval, and files it with the court to be signed and issued. See Rule 25 for more information about orders.

If the judge reserves the decision, it means that they need more time to review the evidence and think about the orders you have asked for. You may need to come back to court for the decision or you may be sent the decision in writing. All Orders and Endorsements will be uploaded into the Case Center Orders and Endorsements bundle for your case.

If you have issues participating at your court event because of a disability, you can get assistance from the court’s Accessibility Coordinator.

For an interactive picture of the inside of a family law courtroom at the Superior Court of Justice, see Steps to Justice: Family Court Illustrations: Superior Court of Justice.

In very limited or emergency situations, you may be able to bring a motion without first providing notice to the other party. According to Rule 14(12), you can bring a motion without notice when:

• notice is either unnecessary or not reasonably possible.
• there is an immediate danger that a child will be removed from Ontario and the delay in serving a notice of motion, or alerting the other party to your motion, would probably have serious consequences;
• there is an immediate danger to your health or safety or that of a child and the delay in serving a notice of motion would probably have serious consequences; or
• serving a notice of motion would probably have serious consequences.

The Court will decide whether to hear your motion without notice based on your motion materials, which include:

• The Form 14: Notice of Motion, which includes the date, time, and location of your motion and the orders you are asking the Court to make.

• The Form 14A: Affidavit is where you explain to the Court why you are asking for the orders in your notice of motion, and you provide the Court with your evidence.

If you want the Court to review any evidence in support of your claim, you may attach documents to your affidavit as exhibits before you get it commissioned.

Motions without notice are the exception to the basic rule that the other party must know of any motions ahead of time and have a chance to respond. After a judge makes orders on a motion without notice, the other side must be notified immediately, and the case must be brought back to court within 14 days.

If you aren’t sure whether you can bring a motion without notice and you don’t have a lawyer, you can call the Law Society of Ontario’s emergency Family Law Referral telephone line at 1-800-268-7568 or 416-947-3310. When you call this number, an agent will refer you to a lawyer who will get back to you within 3 business days.

You can also speak to duty counsel if they are available at your courthouse or call Legal Aid Ontario toll-free at 1‑800‑668‑8258.

The Family Court Support Worker Program provides assistance to victims of intimate partner violence who are going through the family court process.

For emergency, 24-hour a day telephone support, you can call:

• the distress linein your region
• The Assaulted Women’s Helpline, (200+ languages) at 1-888-651-1416 or dial #SAFE(7233)
• Fem’aide, if you speak French, at 1-877-336-2433
• Talk4Healing, if you are an Indigenous woman living in Northern Ontario and speak English, Ojibway, Oji-Cree, or Cree, at 1-855-554-4325
• Ganohkwasra Family Assault Support Services, if you are part of the Six Nations of the Grand River community, at 519-445-4324

If family or intimate partner violence is an issue in your case, you can call Assaulted Women’s Helpline  for free, confidential and anonymous crisis counselling, emotional support, information, safety planning, and referrals via telephone in 200+ languages.

Toll-free, 24-hour counselling line: 1-888-651-1416 or dial #SAFE

If you are afraid that your current or former partner will harm you or your children, you can ask the court for a restraining order.

A restraining order is a family court order that puts limits on someone’s right to communicate with you or come near you or your child(ren). Not following the conditions in a restraining order is a crime.

You can only ask for a restraining order against someone you are married to, have lived with as a couple, or have children with. Unlike a family court restraining order, a criminal law peace bond can be ordered against anyone who you believe will hurt you or your property, whether you were in a relationship with them or not. You can learn more about the difference between restraining orders and peace bonds at Steps to Justice.

Find step-by-step information about how to apply for a restraining order on the Government of Ontario Website: Getting a restraining order | ontario.ca, or at Steps To Justice: Get a restraining order – Steps to Justice.

You may be able to get free legal assistance from Legal Aid Ontario: Restraining orders – Legal Aid Ontario.

If you need counselling, safety planning or resources, you can receive emergency, 24-hour a day telephone support at:

• The Assaulted Women’s Helpline, (200+ languages) at 1-888-651-1416 or dial #SAFE(7233)
• Fem’aide, if you speak French, at 1-877-336-2433
• Talk4Healing, if you are an Indigenous woman living in Northern Ontario and speak English, Ojibway, Oji-Cree, or Cree, at 1-855-554-4325
• Ganohkwasra Family Assault Support Services, if you are part of the Six Nations of the Grand River community, at 519-445-4324

The Family Court Support Worker Program provides assistance to victims of intimate partner violence who are going through the family court process.

Binding Judicial Dispute Resolution (JDR) is a simpler and faster process to resolve a family dispute, instead of a trial.  Through Binding JDR, parties ask the same judge to try to assist them to settle their issues on consent and to make final orders about unresolved issues in a single hearing. In order to access a Binding JDR hearing, the parties must sign a request and consent form and obtain the approval of the Court.

A Binding JDR hearing includes both the settlement and the adjudication parts of the process. The judge conducting the Binding JDR hearing will explore with the parties (and their lawyers, if any) options to resolve their dispute on consent. As in any court proceeding, the judge conducting the Binding JDR hearing has an oversight role and must approve the terms of settlement before making an order.

For any issues that cannot be resolved on consent, the judge will hear submissions from the parties about the orders that they are seeking. The judge may ask the parties questions and request additional information, if necessary, to reach an informed and fair decision.  The parties do not have an automatic right to call and cross examine witnesses at a Binding JDR hearing.

At the conclusion of the Binding JDR hearing, which is usually not longer than a day of court, the judge will provide a final order on the issues, including those that have been resolved on consent.

You can access Binding JDR at Superior Court of Justice locations, (including in the unified Family Court) that have been approved by the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice. To date, this includes: the entire East, Central East, Central South, Northeast, Northwest and Toronto regions and Middlesex County (London).

For information about Binding JDR, how to request and schedule a hearing, how to file evidence for the hearing, and what to expect at a Binding JDR hearing, see Rule 43 of the Family Law Rules.

Rule 18 tells you about how to make and accept an offer to settle.

You may make an offer to settle at any time during your court case. An offer to settle tells the other side what you are willing to accept to resolve the issues. Your offer to settle should be clear, reasonable, and fair.

Offers to settle are very important. Not only can they help you come to an agreement with the other side, but they may also entitle you to receive costs from the other party if the offer meets the following conditions:

• For a motion, the offer is made at least one day before the motion date.
• For a trial or hearing, the offer is made at least seven days before the trial or hearing date.
• The offer does not expire and is not withdrawn before the hearing starts.
• The other side did not accept your offer.
• You obtain a court order that is as good as or better than your offer.

Except for at a binding judicial dispute resolution hearing, the judge can only see any offers to settle after deciding the issues.

The successful party on a motion is usually allowed to have a portion of their legal costs paid by the other side. You may be asked to tell the judge why you are asking for costs either verbally or in writing and to provide the judge with a summary of your expenses.

The judge considers several factors in deciding what costs should be paid, including how reasonable the party was during the motion and whether the party made reasonable offers to settle.

More information about how costs are decided can be found at Rule 18 and Rule 24 of the Family Law Rules.

If a support order has been made, the court will automatically send it to the Family Responsibility Office (FRO). This is a government agency that enforces support orders by collecting money directly from the person who has been ordered to pay support (the support payor). The FRO keeps a record of the amounts paid, and then pays that amount to the person who is owed the support (the support recipient).

For more information about the FRO, see the Government of Ontario’s website and CLEO’s Steps to Justice.

When making a support order, the judge will also sign a Support Deduction Order (SDO) and attach a Support Deduction Order Information Form with details of the order for support. These are then sent to the FRO. You will be asked for information to help complete these forms.

What is a motion to change?

After your case has ended, there may be times when your situation has changed, and you need to request a change to some of the terms in your final court order. For example, you may need to change:

• the amount of child or spousal support payments because of a change in income.
• Parenting arrangements, including parenting schedules and decision-making, because of a significant change in your circumstances.

To change a final order, you must file a motion to change. The process for these court proceedings is set out in Rule 15 of the Family Law Rules.

Where should I start my motion to change?

You must start your case at the level of court that made the final order. If the order you want to change was made at the Superior Court of Justice, including the Family Court branch, you must start your case in either of those courts. If you are trying to change an order from the Ontario Court of Justice, you must bring your case to that court.

Your family law case will usually be heard in the courthouse located in the municipality where you or the other side live. If your case involves parenting issues such as decision making or parenting time, you must bring the application in the municipality where the child lives.

Rule 5 of the Family Law Rules tells you more about where you should start your case.

Who are the parties on a motion to change?

If you are changing a final court order, you must include all the parties who participated in the initial court application. You must indicate on the form the names and information of the applicant and the respondent. These continue to be the same as listed on the initial application no matter who is starting this new court proceeding. In other words, the applicant remains the applicant and the respondent remains the respondent.

The party who starts the motion to change – whether the applicant or the respondent – is called the moving party and the other side is the responding party.

How do I prepare a motion to change?

If all parties agree with the change, you can jointly fill out, sign and file with the court a consent motion to change, using Form 15C: Consent to Motion to Change or Form 15D: Consent to Motion to Change Child Support (child support only).

If parties do not agree on the requested change, you start your case by preparing a Form 15: Motion to Change. This form must be commissioned, which means you must sign the Form 15 Motion to Change in front of a lawyer or commissioner of oaths to affirm or swear that what it says is true. A clerk at the courthouse can commission your motion to change if you do not have a lawyer.

For more information about making or responding to a motion to change, including all the necessary documents and the steps you need to take, go to the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Guide to Procedures in a family law case: steps to making a motion to change.

You can also find this information at Steps to Justice: How do I change my court order? and get help filling out the forms at Guided Pathways.

First court dates on a motion to change

Your first appearance court date may be automatically scheduled if your case is in the Family Court Branch. The next step will normally be a case conference with a judge or a Dispute Resolution Officer.

Subrule 15(24.1) of the Family Law Rules requires the judge at the first conference to determine the best process for reaching a quick and just conclusion for your motion to change.

Some courts have Dispute Resolution Officers (DROs) who conduct the first case conferences on motions to change and certain court applications. A DRO is not a judge; a DRO is an experienced family lawyer who has been approved by the Regional Senior Judge.

DROs try to identify, resolve, or settle issues you do not agree on by:

• helping the parties come to an agreement on the issues in dispute
• helping you get a consent order from the Court if the parties have reached an agreement on any issues in the case, including financial disclosure and other procedural issues
• helping the parties organize the issues and exchange financial documents so that the case is ready to see a judge

The DRO program currently operates in the following locations: Toronto, Barrie, Brampton, Durham, Milton, Newmarket, Hamilton, London, St. Catharines, Kitchener, Kingston and Welland.

For more information about the Dispute Resolution Officer program, see the Superior Court of Justice Provincial Family Practice Directions.

A final decision on a motion to change

If the issues are not settled at the conference, the motion to change can be dealt with at a motion where a judge makes a decision based on the written evidence that has been filed by the parties. In some cases, it may be necessary to schedule a trial or a focused hearing to have the case resolved.

Many court attendances are now being held virtually instead of in-person. The court has provincial guidelines setting out which events will happen virtually by default. The provincial guidelines are available on the Superior Court of Justice Website, Superior Court of Justice Consolidated Provincial Practice Directions for Family Proceedings, Part III.

When your event is scheduled, you will be told how it will be heard. If the event is proceeding on Zoom, you can find your hearing details, including the Zoom link, in your Case Center case.

You will need to make arrangements to participate in any virtual court events, just like you would arrange to attend court in-person. That means you must have the ability to connect to the court event.

Here are some suggestions to help make your participation in the court event go as smoothly as possible:

1. Try to find a quiet, private space with minimal disruptions.
2. If the hearing is a videoconference, it is best if you can join online with a video camera. If you can’t, you can call into the event from a landline (preferable) or cellphone. Call-in details are included with every Zoom invitation.
3. If you are participating by videoconference, make sure you have enough bandwidth (minimum 1 Mbps; for best connection, you need 3 Mbps). If you have low bandwidth, it is best to connect to the internet using an ethernet cable and not the WIFI.
4. Make sure your phone or device is charged in advance or connected to power so it does not run out of battery during the hearing – videoconferences can use up battery quickly.
5. Close any apps and windows on your device that you are not using for the hearing and turn off other devices in your vicinity. This will reduce interruptions to your internet connection.
6. If you lose the connection to the hearing, you should immediately try to rejoin. Keep the joining instructions (meeting information and passcodes) nearby so that you know where to find them if you are disconnected.
7. If you are struggling to follow the hearing, you should let the Court know right away. If you are participating by videoconference, you can do this by speaking, putting your hand up, or (on the Zoom platform) pressing a button to raise a ‘virtual’ hand. If you are joining a Zoom hearing by telephone, you can put your hand up by pressing *9.
8. Use your first and last name as your screen name on zoom so that all participants know who is in the videoconference. If you are participating by telephone you will need to identify yourself verbally.
9. You may need to wait for your case to be called, particularly if you have been scheduled on a motions list. Until your case is addressed by the court, please mute your microphone.
10. It is important to wait for your turn to speak and unmute yourself when it is your turn. Otherwise, it becomes very difficult for participants to follow the discussion.
11. Just as you would attend court in person, you should not plan to eat or drink anything but water during the court attendance.
12. You will want to have the important documents related to your case with you so that you can refer to them during the hearing. These materials must be uploaded into your Case Center file (in the appropriate bundle for the event) once they have been accepted for filing.

If you have issues participating at your court event because of a disability, you can get assistance from the court’s Accessibility Coordinator.