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Updated: August 2024 Changes to BC’s Family Law Act and the Provincial Court Family Rules allow both the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court of BC to make orders about ownership and possession of a family’s animal companion when a marriage ends.

September 30, 2024 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day when we honour survivors of residential schools, the children who never returned home, and their families and communities. But reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is a year-round commitment for the Provincial Court. This year, the Court accepted the invitation of the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations to sit in their communities.

Since 2007, the Court has partnered with a law school in Canada’s only Judicial Externship Program where final-year students earn academic credits as they spend a term working with judges. The latest group of students has begun their orientation.

A parenting coordinator is a dispute resolution professional who provides mediation or arbitration services on parenting issues for a fee. They may be a lawyer, psychologist or social worker or someone with experience mediating civil law disputes.

The Justices Services Branch of BC’s Ministry of the Attorney General has worked with the Court and other stakeholders to replace the forms required by the Provincial Court Family Rules with new forms that are shorter, clearer and easier to navigate.