Starting and Responding to a Family Law Case

Start your case, complete the forms
Starting or responding to a family law case for parenting time, decision-making responsibility and child and/or spousal support:
Start your case, complete the forms

Starting or responding to a family law case for parenting time, decision-making responsibility and child and/or spousal support:

If you are starting the case with an application, you are the Applicant. The other party is known as the Respondent. You are both known as the Parties in your family court case.

You begin by filling out the court forms. Both parties can find the court forms online or at any family court office. Make sure that you use the forms from this website as it contains the most updated forms.

Please pay attention to Rules 5 (Where a Case Starts and is to be Heard) and 8 (Starting a Case) of the Family Law Rules that tell you about the process to start a family law application.

For an Applicant to begin a family court case, you must complete and file a general application Form 8 at the court with information about:

the issues you are asking the judge to resolve (such as parenting time and decision-making responsibility for children, child support, spousal support)

your relationship with the other party.

your children, if you have any children

any other facts you are relying on to support your application

Useful resources

Family Law court forms

Family Law Rules

Application (General) Form 8

Rule 13 of the Family Law Rules has information on financial disclosure.

If you, as the Applicant, are only asking for the Child Support Guidelines table amount, you do not need to complete a financial statement.

You must complete a Financial Statement Form 13, if you are asking for child support other than the table amount and/or if you are asking for support for yourself (spousal support) from the Respondent.

If you are the Applicant and you must complete a Financial Statement, then you will also need to fill out Form 13A: Certificate of Financial Disclosure to list all the documents that prove what you stated in your financial statement.

If you are a Respondent who has been asked to pay child or spousal support, then you must fill out a Form 13 Financial Statement and Form 13A: Certificate of Financial Disclosure. These should be served and filed together with your completed Form 10: Answer.

If you are the Respondent, you must complete the Answer form (Form 10) of the Family Law Rules. You can find the form here: Form 10

There are several other financial documents that you will need to include with your Financial Statement, including proof of your current income (for example, a pay stub or social assistance statement), and your Canadian Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Notices of Assessments for the past three (3) years. Read rule 13 of the Family Law Rules carefully to ensure that you have included all the documents that you are required to serve to the other party and file with the court.

Before you file your documents, you must remove all financial account numbers and personal identifying information. You do this by blacking out information like:

social insurance numbers

bank account numbers

credit card numbers

account numbers for mortgages, lines of credit, and other loans

You must keep the original documents that shows this information. A judge might ask to see it.

There are additional forms that you must complete. For example, you must complete Form 35.1: Affidavit (decision-making responsibility, parenting time, contact), if you are making a claim for parenting time or decision-making responsibility for a child. You must sign this form in front of a commissioner for taking affidavits.

You should make three (3) copies of each of your documents – one for yourself, one for the other party and the original for the court.

Useful resources

Family Law Rules

Child Support Guidelines

Family Law Rules Form 10

Find a notary public or commissioner of oaths

You are also required to complete a continuing record that includes all the forms that you and the other party have completed. Rule 9 of the Family Law Rules tells you how to prepare your continuing record.

If you are filing your documents online, court staff will create and maintain the continuing record for any proceeding that was started using the Filing Online portal.

If you are filing your documents, in-person at the courthouse, you will need to create and maintain the continuing record.

Information regarding the requirements for the continuing record can be found here: Family Law Rules Continuing Record and Formal Requirements for the Continuing Record.

The Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) website includes information on the continuing record. You may find it here: What is a continuing record and how do I prepare one? - Steps to Justice.

Useful resources

Family Law Rules

File family court documents online

Family Law Rules Continuing Record

Formal Requirements for the Continuing Record

Steps to Justice - What is a continuing record and how do I prepare one?
Get your application issued by the court
Once you have completed your forms, you must get them issued by the court. This means that the court staff will sign, date, and put an official seal on them. The court staff will also give you a file number for your court case. They will also give you a date for your First Appearance at the court. You will also be given the Mandatory Information Program (MIP) forms.
Get your application issued by the court:

Once you have completed your forms, you must get them issued by the court. This means that the court staff will sign, date, and put an official seal on them. The court staff will also give you a file number for your court case. They will also give you a date for your First Appearance at the court. You will also be given the Mandatory Information Program (MIP) forms.

This order will be issued by the court office automatically for all Applications and Answers when claims are first made with respect to decision-making responsibility, parenting time or support. Once you have filed your documents, court staff will give you a copy of the automatic order. You will keep a copy for yourself and make another copy that you need to serve on the other party in your case.

You can find more information about Rule 8.0.1 and Automatic Orders here: Family Law Rules. The Ministry of the Attorney General has also prepared a Tip Sheet that you may find here: Helpful Tips for Automatic Orders.

Useful resources

Family Law Rules

Helpful Tips for Automatic Orders

You and the other party must attend a Mandatory Information Program (MIP) before you go to court. This is a free program that will give you useful information about the family court process. When you go to court to have your forms signed, dated, and sealed, you will also receive two (2) MIP notices. One notice is for you and the other notice is for the other party. You and the other party will attend different MIPs.
File your documents
You must file your completed documents with the court.

Documents may be filed in different ways:
- electronically using Family Submissions Online; or
- in-person at the courthouse.
You may contact the courthouse for other ways to file your documents.
File your documents:

You must file your completed documents with the court.

Documents may be filed in different ways:

electronically using Family Submissions Online; or

in-person at the courthouse.

You may contact the courthouse for other ways to file your documents.

The Family Submissions Online portal provides a simple method to electronically submit court documents, at every step in a case, in any new or existing family proceeding in the Ontario Court of Justice. Note, however, that there are limitations to documents that may be filed at this time. Please check Filing Online to ensure that your documents may be filed using the portal.

If the court clerk accepts the document for filing or issuance, they are considered filed as per the date indicated on the document.

Counsel and parties must keep any document that was originally signed, certified, or commissioned in paper format until the court finally disposes of the matter or if a notice of appeal is not served in the case, the time for serving the notice has expired.

When a document has been filed electronically, it is not necessary to file a paper copy.

Useful resources

File family court documents online

If you are unable to file documents in a family court matter by the Family Submissions Online portal, contact your local courthouse to determine the other options that are available or attend your local courthouse. Contact information for all courts in Ontario is available on the Ministry of the Attorney General website: Court Locations.

Important Information Regarding Electronic Filing

Naming Protocol for Documents:

When documents are filed with the court using the Family Submissions Online portal, the document name must indicate contain the following information in the following order:

Document type, including the form number (For example, Application, Form 8)

Type of party submitting the document (For example, Applicant, Respondent or Third Party)

Name of the party submitting the document, including initials if the name is not unique to the case (For example: P. Smith and B. Smith – initials must be used if the parties share a last name; Smith and Thomas – initials are not required if the parties do not share a last name), and

Date on which the document was created or signed, in the format DD-MMM-YYYY (For example: 12-JAN-2021).

Below are sample document names:

Application Form 8 – Applicant – P. Smith – 12-JAN-2021

Notice of Motion Form 14 – Respondent – J. Brown – 21-DEC-2021

Affidavit General Form 14A – OCL – 01-JUL-2021

Document names shall not include firm-specific naming conventions or court file numbers.

Abbreviations may only be used as follows:

APP for Applicant
RESP for Respondent
O for Other

Useful resources

Court Locations
Serving your family law forms
You must serve your documents on the other party. To do this, you must follow Rule 6 (Service of Documents) of the Family Law Rules.

Different forms require different methods of service. Check Rule 6 to make sure that you are serving your forms correctly.

You must serve all your documents to the other party within a certain time. The Ministry of the Attorney General has a guide that can help you with the time periods for serving your documents. It also shows you how to count days: Guide to procedures in family court: Timelines for serving and filing documents | Ontario.ca.

The Ministry of the Attorney General prepared a guide that includes information on serving documents on the other party. You may find it here: Guide to procedures in family court: Serving your documents | Ontario.ca.

Both parties must file the Affidavit of Service Form 6B with the court. The Affidavit of Service Form tells the court that you successfully served the other party with your documents.

Serve your forms, documents

You must serve your documents on the other party. To do this, you must follow Rule 6 (Service of Documents) of the Family Law Rules.

Different forms require different methods of service. Check Rule 6 to make sure that you are serving your forms correctly.

You must serve all your documents to the other party within a certain time. The Ministry of the Attorney General has a guide that can help you with the time periods for serving your documents. It also shows you how to count days: Guide to procedures in family court: Timelines for serving and filing documents | Ontario.ca.

The Ministry of the Attorney General prepared a guide that includes information on serving documents on the other party. You may find it here: Guide to procedures in family court: Serving your documents | Ontario.ca.

Both parties must file the Affidavit of Service Form 6B with the court. The Affidavit of Service Form tells the court that you successfully served the other party with your documents.
Useful resources

Family Law Rules

Guide to procedures in family court

Guide to procedures in family court: Timelines for serving and filing documents

Guide to procedures in family court: Serving your documents

Affidavit of Service

Form 6B
Case Center: document sharing and e-hearings

The Ontario Court of Justice uses Case Center for family law cases. Case Center is a user-friendly, cloud-based document sharing and e-hearing platform for both in-person and virtual family court appearances. Parties will be able to upload, store, review, search, mark-up, share and present court documents virtually.

Case Center does not replace the filing of your documents with the court office. Therefore, you must continue to file your documents either through the Justice Services Online Portal, by email or in-person with the court office AND upload your filed documents into Case Center. This is mandatory. If you do not file your documents with the court and upload them into Case Center, the court may not have the documents that you will be relying on in court. This may result in your case not proceeding.

Read more information about Case Center and how to use it.

Upload and store your documents on Case Center

The Ontario Court of Justice uses Case Center for family law cases. Case Center is a user-friendly, cloud-based document sharing and e-hearing platform for both in-person and virtual family court appearances. Parties will be able to upload, store, review, search, mark-up, share and present court documents virtually.

Case Center does not replace the filing of your documents with the court office. Therefore, you must continue to file your documents either through the Justice Services Online Portal, by email or in-person with the court office AND upload your filed documents into Case Center. This is mandatory. If you do not file your documents with the court and upload them into Case Center, the court may not have the documents that you will be relying on in court. This may result in your case not proceeding.

Read more information about Case Center and how to use it.

Useful resources

Justice Services Online Portal

Information about Case Center and how to use it, see: Case Center.

Starting and Responding to a Family Law Case

Useful resources

Useful resources