What Questions to Ask Your Family Lawyer in Vancouver and BC? Initial Meetings

1. You’ll know if the family lawyer is right for you;
2. You’ll know if the lawyer is knowledgeable enough to help with your case:
3. You’ll know if the divorce lawyer can create the best strategy for your case;
4. You will be able to budget for your case;
5. You’ll know what the lawyer is good at;
6. You’ll know about timelines and steps to take on your case.

Now let’s watch this video and read below to know what specific questions to ask your family lawyer about your family law case: 

What to Ask a Divorce Lawyer in Vancouver about Child Custody?

1. What is the law relating to parenting time in BC?
2. How does the law in BC apply to my custody case?
3. What are the chances of me being successful in my parenting time or custody case?
4. Can I have an action plan or a strategy in order to navigate my child custody case?
5. What evidence do I need to show to the judge or the other side to be successful?
6. How long will it take to resolve my parenting time or child custody case?
7. Approximately how much will it cost to settle or fight my child custody case?
8. What is the best approach to obtaining parenting time: negotiation, mediation or litigation?
9. Approximately how many child custody cases have you done?
10. What types of parenting time or custody cases do you do the most?

What to Ask a Family Law Attorney about Child Support?

1. How many years of experience do you have with respect to child support?
2. What is the general law as it applies to child support?
3. Given the amount of time I have with my children, how much should I pay or receive approximately?
4. Who keeps the Child Tax Benefits?
5. I have shared custody of the children. What does s.9 of the Child Support Guidelines say about that?
6. In your opinion, what is my income for determining child support? What is the other person’s income?
7. Have you dealt with cases of child support where one or 2 people own corporations or are self-employed?
8. What is my child support income if I am self-employed? What do you look at to determine that?
9. Do I owe back child support or retroactive child support? If so how much?
10. How long will I have to pay child support?
11. Do I have to pay child support if the children are over 19 years old?

What Questions to Ask a Family Lawyer in BC about Spousal Support?

1. Do I have to pay spousal support? Why or why not?
2. Can I obtain spousal support? Why or why not?
3. What types of spousal support are there?
4. What are the ways to obtain spousal support?
5. Do you have a strategy for moving my case forward in obtaining spousal support?
6. What is the test in determining whether someone is entitled to spousal support?
7. If I am entitled to spousal support, where do I go to calculate how much?
8. How long would I be entitled to spousal support?
9. How long would I have to pay spousal support?
10. When is spousal support terminated?
11. Should I negotiate, mediate or litigate my spousal support case?

What Questions to ask a Divorce Lawyer about Divorce?

1. What types of divorce do we have in British Columbia?
2. Is my case a contested divorce or an uncontested divorce?
3. How many divorce applications have you done?
4. Have you done contested divorce, uncontested divorces or both?
5. How much experience do you have in obtaining a divorce?
6. How can I make sure my divorce is uncontested so I do not waste money on legal fees?
7. How long should I be separated to get a divorce?
8. What happens to the children if we divorce?
9. What happens to our property if we divorce?
10. Do I have to pay child or spousal support if we divorce? If so, how much?
11. Can I get a divorce myself?
12. What is the procedure for desk order divorce?
13. What if we do not have an amicable divorce?