Helen Banks, Freelance Lawyer

04/11/2024

Announcement – Replacement of Family Docket Court with Family Chambers and Self-Represented Litigant (Applicant) Family Chambers

Effective September 3, 2024, the Court will no longer hear matters in Family Docket Court in Calgary and Edmonton. Matters that would otherwise be scheduled in Family Docket Court will instead proceed in Family Law Chambers or Self-Represented Litigant (Applicant) Family Law Chambers. This change is made possible in part by the Family Justice Strategy and the corresponding increase in pre-Court resources for family law litigants.

The replacement of Family Docket Court will require a number of changes to the Court’s posted Announcements, Notices and Forms. Further updates will be posted to the Court’s website as those changes are made.

02/12/2024

What do you think the single biggest predictor is? You may not be able to guess but when you read what it is, it will make sense to you!

Four things that kill a relationship stone dead.

02/07/2024

Revised Notice to Attend Family Docket Court and New Financial Disclosure Form
Dec 15, 2023



In conjunction with the Alberta Justice Family Justice Project, the Court of King’s Bench has posted a revised form of the Notice to Attend Family Docket Court and a new form of Financial Disclosure Statement to the Court’s website.

Effective at the close of business on December 15, 2023, counsel and parties are strongly encouraged to use the new Notice to Attend Family Docket Court. A grace period for the use of the original Notice to Attend Family Docket Court will be in place until February 1, 2024; however the mandatory requirements set out in the Court’s Notice to Profession and Public – Family Pre-Court Mandatory Requirements come into effect and apply to all Notices to Attend Family Docket Court submitted for filing after the close of business on Friday, December 15, 2023.

Effective immediately, counsel and parties are strongly encouraged to use the new Financial Disclosure Statement when providing required financial disclosure. However, a disclosure package will not be rejected if a party provides disclosure pursuant to the current Notice to Disclose.

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01/30/2024

DID YOU KNOW?

From January 2nd to March 31st each year, family law lawyers see a significant increase in requests for their services. If you are looking for a lawyer during these months and have trouble retaining one, that is likely why.

01/17/2024

Here is the link to the streamlined trial process for family files that came into effect January 1, 2024.

01/17/2024

Do you think you could see the warning signs of a suspected m**h lab? Please call your local police or call in an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-5477.

01/07/2024

https://albertalegal.org/index.php This is a list of lawyers in Alberta who provide limited scope retainers and legal couching (including me).

Albertan educational website and directory of lawyers who provide legal coaching or limited services. Legal coaches are lawyers who provides ongoing information about the law and court processes, to enable a person to represent themselves in court, tribunals, or negotiations. A limited service or li...

10/12/2023

The Alberta Rules of Court were amended in March of 2020 to allow a Justice to direct by order that the parties participate in a dispute resolution process. Furthermore, for those matters heading towards a trial, a trial date cannot be requested until the parties provide a certificate confirming that they have participated in a dispute resolution process.

An economical way to meet the requirement for dispute resolution is to engage the services of Alberta Justice, Resolution Services, Family Mediation through the courthouse. This is a voluntary service to help parents resolve issues that affect their children. To qualify for this service, one of the parties must have a gross income of less than $60,000 per year, both parties must agree to participate, and there must be at least one dependent child who is either under 18, or over 18 and eligible for continued child support. Parties do not require legal counsel to attend and even a one hour mediation counts as participation in the dispute resolution process, as required before trial:

Parents who qualify can register online for a free family mediation program.

10/12/2023

10/03/2023

What is the law?

The law is: acts and regulations (drafted by politicians);
The law is: judge-made law (which interprets legislation and/or fills in the gaps in the legislation with "common law" rules); and
The law is: procedural rules, which in Alberta are contained in the Alberta Rules of Court, vols 1 and 2.

In law, there is always a test to be met. If the test is not set out in the legislation (e.g. the "best interests test" in s. 18 of the Family Law Act), then there is pretty much always a common law test made by one or more judges (e.g. the application to adduce new evidence at an appeal comes from Palmer v. The Queen, [1980] 1 SCR 759, as confirmed more recently in Barendregt v. Grebliunas, 2022 SCC 22).