Pleadings in Family Law Cases

Family law cases are among the most emotionally charged kinds of legal matters.  Not only is the parties’ personal financial stability at stake, but so is the house that they have come to call home and their current and future relationship with their children.  They are also the legal matters where the parties are the most likely to represent themselves instead of hiring lawyers.  This only makes sense, because one cannot be involved in a business dispute unless one owns a business, but anyone who is married can get divorced, and anyone who has a minor child can need the court’s help to establish parenting time.  Lack of legal experience and conflicting emotions can lead to parties in family law cases submitting legal documents that focus on all the wrong things or contain irrelevant information.  For help drafting family court pleadings based on a sound understanding of the law, contact a Mississauga family lawyer.

What Is the Role of Pleadings in Family Law Cases?

In civil cases, pleadings are documents where a party in a legal dispute or legal proceeding asks the court to issue a decision.  It is not the same as when defendants in criminal cases enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.  Instead, a pleading is a complaint by a plaintiff, a petition by a petitioner, a defendant’s response to a lawsuit, or a respondent’s response to a petition.  Examples of pleadings in family law cases are divorce petitions, petitions to dissolve domestic partnerships, and petitions for court-ordered parenting plans.

The pleading affirms the court’s authority to issue a legally enforceable ruling on the matter, that is, its jurisdiction.  In your case, the family courts of Ontario have jurisdiction because it is a divorce or parenting plan case, and you live in Ontario; the Ontario courts can still have jurisdiction if you live in Ontario and your ex lives somewhere else.  Next, the author of the pleading lists the rights that he or she wants the court to award to him or her.  For example, a spouse who files for divorce might ask the court to dissolve her marriage and award possession of the marital home to her.

Elements of an Effective Family Law Pleading

Family law pleadings should be brief.  They should not enumerate every detail of why your relationship with your spouse fell apart.  They should not even present evidence to support the requests you are making in the pleading.  Family court judges often strike sentences, or even entire paragraphs, from pleadings in family law cases, simply because they contain too much irrelevant information.  Do not be surprised if your lawyer’s family court pleading contains only a fraction of the information you mentioned when you discussed writing it.

Contact Zagazeta Garcia LLP About Pleadings in Family Law Cases

A family lawyer can help you draft a pleading for a family law matter such as divorce, co-parenting, or the dissolution of a domestic partnership.  Contact Zagazeta Garcia LLP in Mississauga, Ontario to discuss your case.

Source:

trlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/family-law-pleadings-2016-gk-mal.pdf