Court Forms
Court forms are the documents that the court needs from you. These forms ask for specific information from you that help the judge understand your case. Filling out court forms properly helps the judge get a better idea of your situation.
At the start of your case, you will need initial court forms (sometimes called pleadings). These are the documents that start or respond to an action. Pleadings are important because they set out what your position is and what you want from the court. In your pleadings, you must clearly write what you want the judge to order. A judge can only grant you an order that is requested in your initial forms.
Tips for Writing Forms
- Know who’s who: If you are applying or starting the proceedings, you are the Applicant/Claimant. If you are responding, you are the Respondent. The forms and the courts will ask you whether you are the Applicant or Respondent.
- Using names
- Use full names, including middle names.
- If you or the other party often use a name other than the name on your marriage certificate, include that name by adding “AKA” before that name.
- If you or your spouse changed your legal name since you were married, include that new name. Bring a copy of the Vital Statistics change of name certificate when you file your documents.
- Accurate: Be accurate and truthful. Being dishonest in your forms will hurt your case.
- Keep it professional: Remember that a judge and the other party will be reading this.
- Review: make sure you read through your form before submitting it. Read it as if you know nothing about the case, you’ll want to understand what the facts and orders sought are. Seek legal help if you want a professional to look over your forms. Check out Getting Help for more information.
Resources
To assess court forms for:
For more details and for less common forms, check out the Family Law in BC Court Forms
Fixing Errors in Your Submitted Court Forms
Making changes to your submitted Supreme Court BC court forms:
- You can make one set of changes, however major or minor, any time before the Notice of Trial is filed
- you can make another set of changes if you get the written consent of the other party
- to make additional changes, you need to get the court's permission
Law Guide
Supreme Court Family Rules :
8-1 Amending pleadings
How to make the changes
- Make markings: mark all of your changes by underlining them in red
- Change the title: Change the title of the document to start with the word Amended, such as the Amended Notice of Family Claim. If you are changing an amended document the title of the new document starts with Further Amended, (e.g. Further Amended Notice of Family Claim).
- Add the rule: You'll also need to add to the top of the first page the rule allowing you to make these changes and when the original document was filed.E.g. "Amended pursuant to Rule 8-1(1)(a) Original filed on 5 July 2015."
- File and serve: file the amended documents in the court registry where the action was started and serve them on the other side by ordinary service within seven days.
Resources
See Changing Supreme Forms or Changing Provincial Forms.
See Provincial family forms for a full list.
