Trying for early resolution

Dez explains what the early resolution process (in Surrey and Victoria) is all about.

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If you find yourself in this position, you can get help from these resources:

Surrey and Victoria Family Court
Explains how anyone who wants to resolve a family dispute in Surrey or Victoria Provincial (Family) Court is able to use different procedures than in the rest of BC.

Transcript:

Panel 1: Dez on phone
Dez: Hey, guess what! I’ve started the early resolution steps!


Panel 2: Cami on phone with December calendar and Christmas lights on wall behind her
Cami: Isn’t it a bit early for New Year’s resolutions? I haven’t even planned the party yet!


Panel 3: Dez rolling dough with daughter
Dez: No, party girl! I mean the early resolution process they have in the Surrey provincial court.


Panel 4: Dez: Carter and I are getting help to work out our parenting arrangements without having to go to court.
Cami: What kind of help?


Panel 5: Dez: We’ll get some legal information, learn some parenting stuff, maybe use some community services, then sit down with a mediator. And it’s all free!
Cami: What if that doesn’t work?


Panel 6: Dez presses Christmas cookie cutter into dough
Dez: That’s the other cool thing – in that case, we get to meet with a judge, but we just sit around a table instead of having a trial in a courtroom.


Panel 7: Dez: It’s for real though because if we do agree, the judge can make the decisions right there. So we’d have to make sure we’re totally prepared.


Panel 8: Cami painting fingernails, sitting at table
Cami: But no trial? And no appearances in court weeks and weeks apart like Bailey had to go through?
Dez: Exactly!


Panel 9: Cami blowing on fingernails
Cami: But wouldn’t that take too much time if your situation was, you know, really intense?


Panel 10: Dez: Yes, but if it’s urgent, you can still go straight to court, even faster than you would have before.


Panel 11: Cami holding party noisemaker
Cami: If you and Carter wrap up your family stuff without hiring lawyers or going to a trial, I’d say that’ll be cause for celebration!


Panel 12: Dez: I should have known you’d figure out a way to get another party out of this!