VIDEO: How to Ask for Child Custody and Support in Your Notice of Family Claim

How to ask for Child Custody and Child Support in Your Notice of Family Claim is explained in the below video. I have inserted the transcripts/descriptions below the video in case you are at work and can’t turn on the volume. Enjoy!

Note, the video has subtitles.

Transcripts: How to Ask for Child Custody and Support in Your Notice of Family Claim, BC

Hello everybody, my name is Leena Yousefi, and I am a family lawyer in Vancouver, British Columbia with YLaw Group.

In the previous tutorial, I showed you how to find and file a Notice of Family Claim to seek divorce. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to file a claim for child custody and child support. So without further ado, I am going to go into the form and show you exactly how to do it.

Here is the link to Schedule 2 of the Notice of Family Claim:

 Schedule 2 of Notice of Family Claim

Schedule 2 of the Notice of Family Claim – Basic Information

1. Under the section”Children”, obviously, this section is quite easy. You just put the name, month birth and year.
2. Under the section “Child’s relationship to the Claimant”: you are the claimant, so if you are the mother, your put ‘natural child’. If you are the step-father, you put “stepchild”. If you are a grandparent, you put “grandchild”. 
3. Under the section “Child’s relationship to the respondent”, it could be “natural child”, “stepchild”, “niece”, etc.
4. “Child Habitually resident in British Columbia”, it would be month, year and day. So don’t just put the year in there as the Claim may get rejected.
5. “Child living with”, you can put “both parties”, “with me” or “with the respondent”, whatever the situation currently may be. 

Schedule 2 of the Notice of Family Claim – Orders Sought

1. Under “orders sought”, most times we seek an order for parenting and child support. If the kids are over 16 years old, then you may not need a ‘parenting order’, or if you don’t have access to the child or you have the child less than 40% of the time, you don’t need to need to ask for an order for child support. It really depends on what your situation is. 
2. Under “Current arrangements for parenting”, needs no arguments. Do not argue. Just put in, i.e., “I have the child primarily residing with me”, for example. Or the ‘child is being shared’, or “I have limited access”, whatever it is, you just put that in there. Make sure you explain exactly what the situation is, not what you want to happen. 
3. Under “Proposed arrangements”, again you just say what your wishes are. I.e. “I wish to have the child in my primary care over 60% of the time”, “I wish to share guardianship and parental responsibilities”. You just put what you wish and if you don’t know what guardianship or parental responsibilities are, go to our website and we have a whole bunch of information on that.

Orders Under the Divorce Act or Family Law Act?

This is where it gets important:

• If you are not married, you can only click this box: Family Law Act,
• If you are married, you can click this box: Divorce Act.

Divorce Act only applies to married couples. So if you put Divorce Act and you are not married, your claim may be rejected by the registry and we don’t want that to happen.

Filling Out the Child Support Section of the Notice of Family Claim

• Under “Child support arrangements”, there is a section called: “current arrangements”. You can say ‘none at all’, you can say “I am receiving $1000 per month” or whatever the situation may be.
• “Income of the person being asked to pay child support” is probably the other person you are suing, so usually I just put “I don’t know” because nobody knows for sure, but if are really certain what their income is, you click the other box and you can say $60,000 for example. And then it asks “based on these facts”, so you say I have reviewed his 2017 Notice of Assessment, etc.

I am sorry I am saying “his”. It could be “hers”. Trying to be gender-neutral. And I am trying to do this quickly, and it is usually, unfortunately, mothers who are seeking child support from dads most of the time anyway. And there is nothing wrong with that by the way.

• “Proposed child support arrangements” –  usually when you click this box, it is the monthly amount that you are seeking. The monthly amount is for things like food and shelter and everyday expenses. Here, you have to put the name of the child that you want the child support for. So you put, i.e., Mary Jane Smith or any other children.
• “Special and Extraordinary expenses” are under s.7 of the Child Support guidelines. They include tuition, medical/dental, nanny fees, swimming, psychology, whatever they may be. And they come up from time to time, so it is best to claim them even if you don’t have any right now.
• “By Consent” section almost never happens. But it’s usually when you and the other parent have consented to the child support amount and you just want an order for it.

Again if you weren’t married, click the Family Law Act. If you were married, you can click both, Divorce Act and Family Law Act.

And that’s it. In the next tutorial, I am going to tell you how to fill out this form as far as it relates to spousal support. But this concludes our tutorial. Again, go on to our website at www.ylaw.ca if you need any more information or shoot us an email at [email protected].

Thank you so much for joining me and I’ll see you next time.

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