Both the Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench have four mandatory requirements you must complete before you can apply for most court orders. The goal of these requirements is to help you and the other person better understand and hopefully resolve all or some of the issues between you without going to court.
The requirements only apply in Edmonton and area, Calgary, Red Deer and Grande Prairie. In some situations, the court will grant an order to waive or defer the requirements if you cannot complete them.
Need to know
- You must complete four mandatory pre-court requirements before applying to the Court of King’s Bench or Court of Justice in some locations.
- The requirements are: completing the Parenting After Separation Course, meeting with a Family Court Counsellor, sharing financial information and trying to resolve your dispute outside of court.
- You can ask the court to waive or defer the mandatory requirements if you cannot complete them.
Get started
Learn the basics about the two family courts and five laws in Alberta before you decide which court to apply to.
Next, figure out whether the mandatory requirements apply to your case.
Where the requirements apply
You must complete the steps on this page if you are applying to go to the Court of Justice or the Court of King’s Bench in:
- Edmonton and area (Stony Plain, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Leduc and Fort Saskatchewan)
- Calgary
- Red Deer
- Grande Prairie
When the requirements do not apply
You do not have to complete these requirements if you are:
- applying for a protection order
- applying for an urgent order with the court’s permission
- applying for a consent order
- applying for an order about serving court documents
- applying for an interjurisdictional order (where you or the other person live outside Alberta)
- filing a Statement of Claim for Divorce or Joint Statement of Claim for Divorce
- filing a Request for Divorce (without oral evidenceoral evidence Evidence given by speaking under oath at a questioning, hearing or trial. Sometimes it is called oral testimony or viva voce (Latin for “word of mouth”) evidence.)
- filing a Statement of Claim for Matrimonial/Family Property Division
- filing a Statement of Claim for Unjust Enrichment
- filing a Notice to Disclose – Desk Application
- appealing a decision by the Court of Justice
Four mandatory pre-court requirements
The four mandatory pre-court requirements are:
- Complete the Parenting After Separation Course
- Meet with a Family Court Counsellor if you do not have a lawyer
- Share financial information (disclosure) with the other person
- Try to resolve your dispute outside of court
Read more below about each of the four requirements.
Complete the Parenting After Separation course
If you are dealing with issues relating to children under the age of 18, such as parenting time or decision-making authority, you must complete the Parenting After Separation course. This is a free, online course provided by the Government of Alberta.
Once you complete the course, you will get a certificate, known as a PAS Certificate. You must file this with the court as proof you completed the course.
If more than two years has passed since you took the course, you must take it again and file a new PAS Certificate.
Meet with a Family Court Counsellor
You do not have to complete this requirement if a lawyer is representing you or if you do not have dependent childrendependent children Children under the age of 18 years or children 18 years or older who are not financially independent. An adult child may not be financially independent because they are studying full-time or have injuries, disabilities or medical conditions..
Family Court Counsellors, also known as FCCs, can:
- help you understand your legal issues and the court processes
- outline options for resolving your issues, including how to meet the requirement to try to resolve your issues outside of court
- refer you to other resources that can help
- help you figure out what financial information you need to share and how best to share it with the other person
- advise whether you can apply to waive/defer the mandatory requirements
This is a free service provided by the Government of Alberta.
Share your financial information with each other
If you are applying for an order about child support or spousal/partner supportspousal/partner support On this website, referring to both spousal support and partner support. or to divide your assetsassets Something a person owns that has value. Assets include houses, vehicles, furniture, money and investments. and debtsdebts Money you owe to others, including individuals and companies. Debts include mortgages, credit cards and loans., you and the other person must share financial information with each other.
To learn more about what information to share and how to share it, review the following pages:
- Share financial information to collect or pay support
- Share financial information to divide assets and debts
When you meet with an FCC, they can also help you understand what information you need to share and how best to share it with the other person.
You must complete the Financial Disclosure Statement form but do not sign it. Gather all the documents you need to share and bring them to your meeting with the FCC. Find the form on the Alberta Courts website.
You must file your form and copies of all your financial information with the court and serve them on the other person.
Try to resolve your dispute outside of court
You and the other person must try to resolve your legal issues in some way outside of court, known as an Alternative Dispute Resolution process or ADR process.
The ADR process must:
- be delivered by someone who is neutral and who is familiar with parenting conflict, family violence and the impact of conflict on children and child development
- include the topics or issues you want to bring to court
- have been attempted within the past six months
Examples of ADR processes include mediation, settlement meetings with your lawyers and other government resolution programs.
Before the ADR process starts, you must share financial information with each other to make sure you all have the same information. During the ADR process, hopefully you and the other person can resolve some or all of your issues.
You must fill out a Participation in ADR Form and file it with the court as proof you completed this requirement.
If you cannot complete the requirements
You can request to waive or defer the four requirements. The court will only waive or defer these requirements if:
- there is a risk of severe economic harm to you or your children
- the other person is not participating in these mandatory processes or cannot be found
- you have a court order prohibiting contact between you and the other person
- a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. decides there is another acceptable reason to waive/defer these requirements
The process to ask the court to waive or defer one or more requirements depends on which court you’re using.
You can request to waive or defer the four requirements by filing a Request to Waive/Defer Mandatory Requirements form with the court.
Find the form on the Court’s website.
- Complete the following forms, available on the Court’s website:
- Request to Waive/Defer Mandatory Requirements
- Desk Application to Waive/Defer Mandatory Requirements
- Notice to Respond to Waiver Request
- Serve the other person with the three completed forms, along with a blank Response to Request to Waive Mandatory Requirements form for them to complete. The other person must complete the Response to Request to Waive Mandatory Requirements and return it to you within 5 days.
- After 5 days, you must file the forms listed below with the court. After you file them, you do not have to give filed copies to the other person.
- Request to Waive/Defer Mandatory Requirements
- Desk Application to Waive/Defer Mandatory Requirements
- Notice to Respond to Waiver Request
- Response to Request to Waive Mandatory Requirements, if the other person has completed and returned it to you
- If the other person does not return the Response to Request to Waive Mandatory Requirements, you must complete an Affidavit of Service proving you served the documents. If you have an order dispensing with service or another order about service (such as a substitutional service order), you must mention this order in your Affidavit of Service.
- A justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. will decide whether to grant you an order to waive the mandatory requirements. If the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. grants the order, the court will give you a copy of it. You must serve the order on the other person. The court may email the other person a copy of the order, but this does not count as service of the order.
After you complete the requirements
If you and the other person agree on all or some of your issues, you can put your agreement into a consent order and submit it to the court. If neither person has started an action, you must file a commencement document with the consent order.
If you and the other person have not been able to resolve all your issues, you can apply to court for an order. The process depends on which court you are using.
- To apply for a court order in the Court of Justice under the Family Law Act, follow the steps on the Get or respond to a court order page.
- To apply for an order in the Court of King’s Bench, follow the steps on the Go to the Court of King’s Bench page.
Potential issues
It is challenging or impossible to serve court forms on one person.
You may need to get an order for substitutional service to allow you to serve the person in non-traditional ways.
The other person is not cooperating.
If the other person is not sharing financial information or willing to try an ADR process, you can ask the court to waive or defer one or both of these requirements.