Practice area 3.1 · Family Law
Family law
The fear is usually the children, and whether one wrong word now costs you time with them later. We slow it down, put the plan on paper, and make sure your next move is the considered one and not the frightened one.
1. This page is for you if
- 1.1
You have decided to separate and you cannot tell whether to move out, stay put, or who tells the kids first.
- 1.2
You share a mortgage on a place outside Bellwood and neither of you can carry it alone.
- 1.3
The other person has already hired someone, and a letter has arrived that you do not know how to answer.
- 1.4
You agreed a parenting schedule by text two years ago and it has quietly stopped working for anyone.
2. What the work includes
A written parenting plan
Where the children live, how holidays divide, and how the big decisions get made, in a document a court will recognize.
The financial picture, gathered
Support, property, pensions, and debt set out together, so you see the whole board before you trade a single piece.
Negotiation and mediation
We work toward an agreement reached at a table. We prepare you for that table and sit beside you at it.
Court, when it is the only door left
If the other side will not be reasonable, we file, we appear, and we tell you what each date is for before it arrives.
3. Clocks that may apply
Some rights in this area expire on a timetable, whether or not anyone mentions it. For starting a claim, the law calls that time a Limitation periodThe time limit for starting a legal claim. After it passes, the claim is usually gone for good.Most BC claims have two years from discovery. Our page on the clocks lists the common ones.Every term, defined. These are the clocks we watch on files like yours.
- 3.1Check your dates: Property and spousal support, married
Property and spousal support, married
2 years from the date of the divorce order
- 3.2Check your dates: Property and spousal support, unmarried
Property and spousal support, unmarried
2 years from the day you separated
- 3.3Check your dates: Responding to a family claim in Supreme Court
Responding to a family claim in Supreme Court
30 days from the day you were served
General information about how BC counts these periods, not advice on your facts. Treat the date as the last possible day and act well before it.
4. What it costs
Family work is billed by the hour, from $295 to $385 depending on who handles the file, and Priya's rate sits inside that band. Before anything starts you get a written estimate of the likely range, and we tell you when a step is not worth what it would cost. Conflict, not our rate, is the biggest thing that moves the bill.
The estimate builder turns these figures into a range for your own file, with our fee, any DisbursementsOut-of-pocket costs a lawyer pays on your behalf and passes on at cost: registry fees, searches, courier.They are not the lawyer's fee. We list them before you sign anything and show each one on the bill.Every term, defined and the taxes each on a line of their own.
5. What happens next
The anxiety is almost never the law. It is not knowing what happens next. So here is what happens next.
- 5.1
Sit down and map the situation
At the first meeting we take down what has happened and what you want the year to look like. You leave with a written estimate of the range and the first two or three moves already decided.
- 5.2
We gather before we argue
Financial disclosure, the schedule as it actually runs, the documents that decide who is owed what. Nothing goes to the other side until you have seen it yourself.
- 5.3
We try to settle it at a table
A proposal in writing, then negotiation or mediation. We aim to settle without a courtroom, and most of our work happens at a kitchen table or in a mediator's office.
- 5.4
If it must go to court, you are ready
We file, we appear at each date, and you always know what the next appearance is for before you walk in the door.
6. Who does the work
We will tell you when settling is the braver choice, even though a fight bills more hours. A family that can still stand in the same room next year is worth more than a paragraph won today.
7. What to bring to the first meeting
Whatever you can find is enough to start. If the file needs anything more, we tell you in writing.
- Your date of separation, written down
- Your last three years of tax returns and a recent pay stub
- Any agreement or court papers you already have
- A short note on the children's usual week
If someone is on the other side, bring their names as well. We run a Conflict checkThe search a firm runs before taking you on, to make sure it has never acted for the person on the other side.It is why we ask for names before we ask for your story: if we cannot act for you, we should not hear the details.Every term, defined before we hear the details.
8. Reading, before you spend a dollar
9. Questions people actually ask
- How much is this going to cost me before it is over?
- It turns on how much the two of you can agree on. The work is hourly, from $295 to $385, and the single biggest cost driver is conflict, not the rate. We give you a written estimate of the range at the first meeting and update it as the facts change. An agreed separation costs a fraction of a contested one.
- How long does a separation or divorce take in BC?
- An uncontested matter, where you agree on the terms, can move fairly quickly once the paperwork is filed. A contested one runs on the court's calendar and the other side's willingness to be reasonable. We give you a realistic timeline for your own situation rather than an average that fits nobody.
- Do I need a lawyer, or can we sort it out ourselves?
- If you both agree and there are no children and few assets, you may only need us to check the agreement before you sign. The moment children, a house, a pension, or a power imbalance is in play, one meeting now is cheaper than fixing a handshake deal later. We will tell you which situation you are in.
Begin with a conversation
Fifteen minutes on the phone, no charge, and an honest answer about whether you need a lawyer at all.