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
Most family files settle at a table rather than a courtroom. We prepare you for the 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. 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.
4. What happens next
The anxiety is almost never the law. It is not knowing what happens next. So here is what happens next.
- 4.1
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.
- 4.2
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.
- 4.3
We try to settle it at a table
A proposal in writing, then negotiation or mediation. Most Bellwood families never see a courtroom, and we would rather yours did not either.
- 4.4
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.
5. 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.
6. Reading, before you spend a dollar
7. Questions people actually ask
- How much is this going to cost me before it is over?
- Honestly, 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 plainly which situation you are in.
Begin with a conversation
Ten minutes on the phone, no charge, and an honest answer about whether you need a lawyer at all.