What should you give to a family law lawyer?
If you are planning to hire a lawyer for your family law matter, you should begin working on collecting your supporting information as soon as possible. Depending on your situation, you should prepare to provide detailed background information, the mandatory family law court requirements and any supporting documents that show that you are telling the truth. Depending on your situation, you should be prepared to provide the following:
Court documents
If you have been to court before, you will need to provide your lawyer with a full copy of all of the court documents that have been filed on your matter. The court documents are needed for your lawyer to be able to fully understand what has happened in court in the past and to be able to give you legal advice on your available options going forward. If you do not have a copy of your court documents, you or your lawyer can request a copy from the courthouse, but this will take time, and it will cost you money.
If your matter was in the Alberta Court of Justice, court documents can be requested by filling out this form and submitting it to the courthouse and paying the search/copy fees.
If your matter was in the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, court documents can be requested online by filling out an online request and paying the search/copy fees via credit card.
Contact information for the other party
Your lawyer may require contact information for the other party to be able to assist you with your matter. You should be prepared to provide their address, phone number and email. If the other party already has a lawyer, your lawyer will need that lawyer’s contact information.
If the thought of your lawyer contacting the other party makes you extremely uncomfortable, tell this to your lawyer. Explain your concerns to your lawyer, and your lawyer may be able to work with you to ensure that the other party is not contacted without your prior knowledge or consent. Your lawyer will likely need to communicate with the other party at some point in time regarding the pre-court mandatory requirements or to serve court documents.
Picture of the other party
If you are planning to file court documents for the first time (or if you are filing for divorce), you may need to provide a picture of the other party to your lawyer. The picture is often required to hire a process server, and the picture is often used as an exhibit to an Affidavit of Service after court documents have been hand-delivered to the other party.
Certificate of Marriage
If you want to get divorced, you will need to provide the original certificate of marriage issued by the Province where you married your spouse. If you do not have the original certificate of marriage but you were married in Alberta, you can order the certificate at a registry office. If you married outside of Alberta, you may need to order the certificate from that Province.
If the marriage was performed outside Canada, you will be required to make a statement that sets out the details of your marriage including the name and title of the officiant who performed the ceremony and the full names of the witnesses at the ceremony.
Parenting After Separation (“PAS“) certificate
The Parenting After Separation (“PAS“) course is a mandatory online course that must be completed before parents can file court documents (unless there is an emergency). The PAS course provides information about separation and divorce, the effects of separation and divorce on children, techniques for communication and legal information that affects parents and children. The PAS Certificate of Completion is required for matters involving children under 18 years old and it expires and must be retaken every two (2) years.
Parenting Information
If you are planning to make changes to the current parenting arrangements, your lawyer will need you to explain the history of care for your child. It will be helpful for your lawyer to know the role that each parent played from birth to separation, then from separation to now. You should be prepared to provide your lawyer with detailed information regarding how often and how much time the child spends with each parent and when, and who made what decisions for the child and when. You should be prepared to provide a new and improved schedule or set of rules which you believe would be in the best interest of your child.
Payment History
If child support or spousal/partner support is an issue, you should be prepared to provide a list of all financial payments that you have either paid or received. If support has been paid directly from one person to the other, your lawyer will need a list of all of the payments that have been made to date. It may also be helpful to collect supporting records for any e-transfers, cheques, receipts or other records that can prove those payments were made.
If you have an order that was registered with the Maintenance Enforcement Program (“MEP”), it is helpful to provide your lawyer will your MEP Statement of Account, or your signed authorization form to be able to communicate with MEP on your behalf.
Financial Disclosure
If you need assistance with child support, spousal/partner support or property, your financial disclosure will be required for your lawyer to be able to assist you with those issues. You should be prepared to provide these non-negotiable (if applicable) items:
- T1 Income General Tax and Benefit Returns for 2022, 2023 and 2024;
- Notice of Assessments for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024;
- Your three (3) most recent paystubs from all of your sources of income;
- Self-employment, partnership and/or corporation information (if applicable);
- Receipts for any section 7 expenses that you have paid for your child(children);
- Bank account, credit account and investment accounts for the past six (6) months;
- Your monthly budget of expenses; and,
- Schedule A.
Your lawyer may need to file a Financial Disclosure Statement attaching your financial items if court is needed to assist you with your matter. If you have your financial disclosure together ahead of time, the process of working with your lawyer will be smoother and it may cost you less money because your lawyer does not need to hunt you down for those items.
List of Questions
You may find it helpful to write down the questions that you want to ask your lawyer at your next appointment. Do not assume that you will remember everything that you want to ask your lawyer about. Take a minute or two to prepare ahead of time. The steps you take to prepare for your meetings can make sure you are getting the most out of your appointments.
What should you take from this?
If you are planning to hire a lawyer for your family law matter, you should begin working on collecting your supporting information as soon as possible. Depending on your situation, you may need to provide detailed background information and/or financial records, plus any evidence such as emails, pictures, letters or documents that can be used to show that you are telling the truth. If you have your stuff together ahead of time, the process of working with your lawyer will be smoother and will cost you less money.
The Edmonton Family Network was designed to be used as a resource to anyone dealing with a difficult family situation. The Edmonton Family Network is familiar with the current limitations of the legal system and the barriers many people face trying to access and afford legal services. The Edmonton Family Network aims to educate and connect people with affordable resources and service providers that can help.
