The Court of King’s Bench can deal with all family law issues, including divorce, dividing family property, child and partner/spousal support and parenting time.
The process for family cases in the Court of King’s Bench changed on January 1, 2026. The new process is known as the Family Focused Protocol (FFP). The FFP encourages both sides to work together to resolve all or most issues and aims to reduce repeated court hearings. The process applies to most cases in the Court, even if your case has been going on for years.
The Court of King’s Bench has more rules and fees than the Alberta Court of Justice. You do not need a lawyer to represent you in the Court of King’s Bench. However, a lawyer can make the process easier for you.
Need to know
- The Court of King’s Bench has different processes to deal with different issues.
- The Court has specific processes to deal with urgent issues, desk applications and certain other issues.
- Most family law issues go through the Regular Family Process, which includes five important steps.
- In the Regular Family Process, the Court assigns a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. to your case, who will guide your case through the process up until trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved..
Get started
Learn the basics about family courts and laws in Alberta before you go to the Court of King’s Bench.
Then, there are a few things you should know, even if it’s not your first time going to this Court.
Different processes for different issues
There are different processes in the Court of King’s Bench to deal with different issues. Learn more below about when to use each process.
The Urgent Process is for issues that cannot wait to go through the regular court process.
You can ask the court to use the Urgent Process in the following situations:
- There is a risk of harm or violence to you or a child.
- You want exclusive possession of the family home because there is a risk of harm or violence to you or a child.
- There is a risk someone will remove a child from Alberta without permission.
- You have an issue with parenting time or contact with a child that cannot wait.
- The court needs to review an Emergency Protection Order.
Learn more about how to make an urgent request on the Court of King’s Bench’s website. If the court decides your issue is not urgent, you must use the Regular Family Process instead.
The Desk Process deals with issues through a desk applicationdesk application Applying for a court order by submitting your documents at the courthouse for a justice to review on their own. You do not speak to the justice. The court contacts you once the justice grants your order, if they need more information or if the justice refuses to grant your order.. This is where you apply for a court order by submitting your documents at the courthouse for a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. to review on their own. You do not speak to the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta.. The court contacts you once the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. grants your order, if they need more information or if the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. refuses to grant your order.
You must use the Desk Process to deal with the following issues:
- consent orders
- joint divorces
- requests to waive or defer the four mandatory pre-court requirements
- requests to meet with Resolution Counsel
- orders about court rules and procedure (such as if you need the Court’s permission to file a document after the filing deadline)
- requests for the other person to share their financial information with you
The forms for a desk applicationdesk application Applying for a court order by submitting your documents at the courthouse for a justice to review on their own. You do not speak to the justice. The court contacts you once the justice grants your order, if they need more information or if the justice refuses to grant your order. are sometimes different than the forms for regular applicationapplication A court appearance where the applicant asks the court for an order to resolve some or all of their legal issues.. Find all court forms on the Court of King’s Bench’s website. If you need more help, get legal support.
Some specific issues have specific processes to resolve them, including the following:
- applying for a protection order or where there are concerns of sexual abuse
- where the court has approved using the Urgent Process
- applying for a surrogacy order
- adopting a child
- appeals of decisions from the Alberta Court of Justice
- getting or changing a child support order when one parent lives in another province
- registering a support order made by a court outside Alberta
- cases where someone has taken a child outside Canada without permission, under Alberta’s International Child Abduction Act, also known as the Hague Convention
- cases about government benefits and supports under the Income and Employment Supports Act
- cases under the Vital Statistics Act where no one is contesting the issue
- cases enforcing family orders and agreements under Canada’s Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act
- cases enforcing support orders and agreements under Alberta’s Maintenance Enforcement Act
- applying to court about an arbitration award
You must use the specific process for each issue. Get legal support to learn more about each process.
You must use the Regular Family Process if all the following are true:
- You need help from the court to resolve a family law issue.
- You want to deal with or are already dealing with family issues in the Court of King’s Bench.
- Your issue does not fall under the Urgent Process, Desk Process or Excluded Processes.
The Regular Family Process deals with most family issues, like dividing family property, child and partner/spousal support, and parenting time. The rest of this page explains the steps in the Regular Family Process.
Four mandatory pre-court requirements
Before you start the Regular Family Process, you must complete four mandatory requirements. If you have a good reason why you cannot complete one or more requirements, you must ask a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. to waive or defer them.
The four requirements are:
- Complete the Parenting After Separation Course
- Try to resolve your dispute outside of court
- Share financial information (disclosure) with the other person
- Meet with a Family Court Counsellor if you do not have a lawyer
Learn more about each requirement on the Get or respond to a court order page.
Start an action
If you don’t already have a case in the Court of King’s Bench, known as an action, you or the other person must start one.
The applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. is the person who files the document to start the case, known as the commencement document. The respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order. is the person who receives and responds to the commencement document. You or the other person can start an action with one of the commencement documents described in the table below.
| Commencement document | Response document | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Statement of Claim for Divorce or Statement of Claim for Divorce and Division of Family Property | Statement of Defence | To file for divorce from your spouse under the Divorce Act. Learn more about starting an action with this document on the Get a divorce page. |
| Statement of Claim for Division of Family Property | Statement of Defence | To divide property using the Family Property Act if you’re not filing for divorce. Learn more about starting an action with this document on the When you can’t agree how to divide your assets and debts page. |
| Claim – Family Law Act | Response – Family Law Act | To deal with issues under the Family Law Act if you’re not filing for divorce. Learn more about starting an action with this document on the Get or respond to a court order page. |
| Originating Application and Affidavit | Affidavit Plus optional documents: Application – Civil and Affidavit | For some specific issues, such as applying for a King’s Bench Protection Order, exclusive possession of a home or partition and sale of a home. Get legal support to learn more about starting an action with this document. |
The applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. must file the commencement document with the Court and then serve it on the respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order.. The respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order. has a chance to respond by filing and serving the correct response document.
If you are asking the Court to make an order about something, the next step is the Mandatory Intake Triage (MIT) Conference.
If you are not asking the Court for an order, you do not have to go to an MIT Conference. For example, you may have filed a Statement of Claim to not miss the limitation periodlimitation period The time a person has to start a lawsuit once the legal issue arises. In Alberta, the limitation period is usually two years but can be longer or shorter depending on the legal issue.. Or you may have started an action, but you and the other person agree to try to resolve your issues outside court. If at any point you need a court order, you will continue through the Regular Family Process by going to an MIT Conference.
Mandatory Intake Triage Conference
The goal of an MIT Conference is for a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. to grant interim (temporary) orders and help move your case forward to the next best step.
Complete the MIT Package
To trigger the Court to schedule an MIT Conference, the applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. and respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order. must both file more documents with the Court and serve them on the other person.
The applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. must complete an MIT Package, and then file it with the Court and serve it on the respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order.. The respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order. then has 2 weeks to respond by completing, filing with the Court and serving their own documents. The applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. may also wish to respond to the respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order.’s documents. For each commencement/response document, follow the process on the page noted in the “When to use” column in the chart above.
The applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order.’s MIT Package should include the following documents, which you can find on the Alberta Courts’ website:
- a completed Proof of Mandatory Requirements form (or a waiver or deferral of the mandatory requirements granted by a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta.)
- your filed commencement document
- a completed Affidavit of Service to prove the commencement document was properly served on the other person
- your completed Financial Disclosure Statement
- if you’ve already served your Financial Disclosure Package on the other person, a completed Affidavit of Service to prove you did this properly. You can also serve your Financial Disclosure Package on the other person for the first time as part of your MIT Package.
- a Request for Mandatory Intake Conference Form
- a Mandatory Intake Triage (MIT) Summary Form
- if you want the Court to make an order about something, the documents to apply for that order. You should include all things you are asking the Court to make an order on so you don’t delay the process later on by raising new issues. Learn about what documents you need on the Get or respond to a court order page.
The applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. must file the MIT Package with the Court. Once you get the filed MIT Package back from the Court, you must serve it on the other person. Then you must complete and file another Affidavit of Service to prove you served the MIT Package.
Once the applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. has served the MIT Package on the respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order., the respondentrespondent The person who responds to the applicant’s request for an order. has 2 weeks to respond. Responding to the MIT Package means completing, filing with the Court and serving on the applicantapplicant The person who applies for a court order. the following documents:
- a completed Proof of Mandatory Requirements form (or a waiver or deferral of the mandatory requirements granted by a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta.)
- your completed Financial Disclosure Statement
- your response to the commencement document
- a completed Affidavit of Service to prove you properly served your Financial Disclosure Statement and response documents
Once you’ve both filed and served all documents, a court clerk reviews everything. They will send you an email to let you know if the Court has accepted them or if documents are missing.
Schedule the MIT Conference
Once the Court accepts the MIT Package, you and the other person have 30 days to book an MIT Conference. The Court will send you a booking request form by email. If you do not book an MIT Conference within 30 days, you will have to start the process over and re-submit the entire MIT Package.
Attend the MIT Conference
The MIT Conference is a one-hour meeting between you, the other person and a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta.. The conference takes place in a courtroom and is recorded, meaning it forms part of the court’s record of your case.
The justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. who runs your MIT Conference, known as the MIT Justice, stays with your case up to trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved. (if you go that far).
Examples of what the MIT Justice can do during the MIT Conference include:
- grant an interim (temporary) order about parenting or child support
- grant an order about court processes, such as setting deadlines for you and the other person to file documents
- grant a consent order
- help to settle issues if both of you are willing to do so
The MIT Justice also looks at whether you have any special needs for the next step, the Settlement Conference. For example, some people may have safety needs because of family violence, or cultural needs such as smudging ceremonies. Others may need accommodations such as wheelchair accessibility or a translator.
After the MIT Conference
After the MIT Conference, the MIT Justice completes an MIT Conference Report, which the Court emails to you and the other person. The MIT Conference Report sets out any deadlines you must follow and gives you permission to schedule any next steps.
If neither you nor the other person have a lawyer, a court clerk will help you prepare any orders the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. granted. If one or both of you have lawyers, a lawyer will do this.
If you and the other person resolve all your issues at the MIT Conference, then there are no further steps in the process.
If you and the other person still have unresolved issues, your case moves on to a Settlement Conference. Sometimes, instead of a Settlement Conference, the MIT Justice might refer you to another case conference or decide your case should go straight to a trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved..
Settlement Conference
The goal of the Settlement Conference is for a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. to help you and the other person come to an agreement on all or some of the issues.
Prepare for the Settlement Conference
You can book a Settlement Conference once you meet any deadlines set by the MIT Justice. If the MIT Justice did not set any deadlines, you can book a Settlement Conference right after the MIT Conference.
You and the other person must submit one Joint Request for Settlement Conference Date form together.
Each of you must also prepare a Settlement Memorandum. This is a letter to the Court that includes:
- a list of issues between you and the other person
- your position on how to resolve each issue
- a summary of facts and evidence you are relying on to support your position
- any case law you are relying on to support your position
- any child support, spousal/partner supportspousal/partner support On this website, referring to both spousal support and partner support. or property division calculations
You must file the Settlement Memorandum with the Court and then serve it on the other person at least 14 days before the day of the Settlement Conference.
Attend the Settlement Conference
The Settlement Conference is an in-person meeting between you, the other person and a different justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. from the MIT Justice. It lasts around 2.5 hours.
The Settlement Conference is usually non-binding, which means the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. will not make any decisions that you must legally follow. You, the other person and the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. can all agree for the Settlement Conference to be binding by signing a Binding Settlement Conference Agreement.
After the Settlement Conference
After the Settlement Conference, the justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. will complete a Settlement Conference Report, which the Court will email to you and the other person. If you settled any issues, the Report says what you and the other person agreed to.
If you and the other person resolve all your issues at the Settlement Conference, the court clerk (if neither of you have lawyers) or a lawyer (if one of you has a lawyer) will prepare the court orders setting out what you agreed to.
If you and the other person do not resolve all your issues at the Settlement Conference, the next step is to prepare for trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved..
Trial
A trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved. is the final step to resolve all outstanding issues between you and the other person. At a trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved., a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. hears evidence from both of you and makes a final decision.
The Court aims to schedule a trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved. no more than 18 months after the Settlement Conference. Learn more about what to expect in court on the Before you go to court page.
Before the trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved., the Court may order you to complete one or more of the following three steps.
Litigation Plan
A litigation plan sets out all the steps you both must take before a trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved., as well as the deadlines for each step. If you and the other person both have a lawyer, your lawyers will create the litigation plan. If one of you does not have a lawyer, Resolution Counsel (lawyers hired by the Court) will help to create the litigation plan.
Rule 4.10 Case Conference
If you and the other person cannot agree on a litigation plan, you will both attend a 4.10 Case Conference with a justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta.. The purpose of this conference is to make the litigation plan.
Pre-Trial Conference
Sometimes, the same justicejustice The title for judges in both the Alberta Court of Justice and the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. who conducted the MIT Conference or the Case Conference will hold a Pre-Trial Conference (PTC) with you and the other person (and your lawyers, if either of you have one). The PTC will take place at least 90 days before the scheduled trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved. date. The purpose of the PTC is to make sure you both are ready for trialtrial A court appearance that resolves all outstanding legal issues in a court cases. A trial includes hearing oral evidence from witnesses and can take several days depending on the issues to be resolved..
Potential issues
One person does not respond to the MIT Package.
Once you serve the other person with the MIT Package, they have 14 days to respond. If they do not respond within 14 days, you may be able to book an MIT Conference without their consent.