Litigation: The Family Law Process. Serving and Filing Court Documents
Welcome back to part 5 of our Family Law Process series. These posts will go through the family law process from start to finish, and will identify what you can expect to occur at each step. Please note that it is possible that not all of the steps will occur in your family law matter.
5. Serving and filing court documents
6. Mandatory Information Program
7. Conferences
8. Motions
9. Trials
Serving and filing court documents
After completing your Application, which if you recall, starts the family law process, the next step is to get your documents issued by the court in order to serve and file your documents. Getting documents “issued” by the court refers to the court clerk signing, dating, and stamping your documents and providing you with a court date. The court will provide you with a court file number, your first court date, notices to attend the Mandatory Information Program (MIP), as well as a blank Answer form, and any other forms that your former partner will be required to complete.
Once your documents are issued by the court, you can now serve your former partner and file your documents with the court after serving them. To serve documents onto the opposing party, the Family Law Rules (FLA) sets out mandatory provisions that must be followed. Rule 6 of the FLA sets out how to serve documents, providing 2 types of service; regular and special service. There are certain documents that must be served via special service, with the Application being one of them. Special service is when you leave the copy of the documents with the following:
a) The person who needs to be served;
b) The person’s lawyer;
c) Mailing a copy to the opposing party with an acknowledgment of service (Form 6B); or
d) At the person’s residence with someone who appears to be an adult and mailing another copy to the same address that day or the next day.
If documents cannot be served via special service because there is no known address or the whereabouts of the party are not known, the Applicant may apply for an order granting substituted service or dispensing of service. Substitute service requires proof that special service has been attempted, however the documents will not be brought to the Respondent’s attention. An alternative form of service such as service via email or text message, would allow for the documents to be brought to their attention. Dispensing of service altogether occurs when all efforts to serve the Respondent have been attempted and there is no indication that substitute service would bring the documents to the Respondent’s attention. In this case, the party would proceed with the court case without serving documents onto the Respondent.
Once the documents have been served, a Form 6B Affidavit of Service must be completed, and filed with your documents. There are 2 ways to file documents with the court, the first is via email, and the second is through the Ministry of the Attorney General’s online filling service. For self-represented litigants, blank forms can be found at https://ontariocourtforms.on.ca/en/family-law-rules-forms/. When filing documents, there may be fees that the court has for you to file your documents. There are no court fees in the Ontario Court of Justice, but there are fees at the Superior Court of Justice and the Family Branch at the Superior Court of Justice.
To note, the above should not be taken as legal advice, and if you have any questions or concerns about your case please speak to a lawyer. To find out how we can help you with your matter, please visit our website at https://www.grantleelaw.ca/ or call us at 905-315-6837 to book your consultation now.
