This blog explores the types of orders available under BC family law, and the role evidence plays in securing them.
What Orders Are Available Under BC Family Law?
As the process of separation and divorce can involve high stakes for those involved, such as the future of a family business or parenting arrangements over a young child, clients often ask us one key question: “What kinds of orders can I get in my situation?”
BC’s Family Law Act provides statutory guidance on a range of family law issues, and case law provides precedents on the kinds of orders that have been granted in specific scenarios.
However, whether a court will grant a particular order depends significantly on the nature and extent of the available evidence. While family and civil cases are determined on the lower standard of proof of a “balance of probabilities,” the strength of a lawyer’s arguments in support of their client’s position can go only as far as the strength of the information and materials that are before a presiding judge.
The Importance of Evidence
Our blog post, BC Family Law Trial Preparation: Discovery of Documents, provides an example of one step in the process of obtaining documents that can be used to prove or disprove a material fact at trial. There are other ways in which important evidence can be given and received by either party in the court process, such as through sworn affidavits, applications seeking the production of further documents, and examinations for discovery. Photographs, witness statements, expert reports, bank statements, text messages, letters, call logs, and journal entries are examples of records that can be presented and relied on as evidence in a family law case.
What may seem to be a straightforward and strong piece of evidence in the eyes of a client caught in the middle of a heated family dispute may not be so simple and decisive in the eyes of a judge. Family lawyers on both sides of a case will need to compile and contextualize evidence, sometimes from a period spanning decades, in order to convince a court that certain orders should be made in their client’s favour.
For clients seeking advice on their family law matter, consider what evidence is currently available to you and what kind of evidence you may want to collect and keep track of over the life of your matter.
Acquiring and arguing the merits of key evidence can be complex and time-consuming—our experienced family law lawyers from Westside Family Law can advocate for and guide you through each step of this process.