Using this site
How is the Family Law website organized?
Viewing and printing
How is the Family Law website organized?
At the top of each page, you will find tabs for each category (Your legal issue, Your community, Your FAQ, Multilingual, Legal system). Mouse over each tab (except Multilingual) to see the drop-down list of the available options. Or click on the tab to see those same options set out on a stand-alone page.
Your legal issue
This tab contains links to all the material on the site organized by legal issue (for example, Divorce & separation).
Your community
This tab contains links to all the material on the site organized by audience (for example, Aboriginal people).
Your FAQ
This tab contains links to the frequently asked questions, categorized by legal issue, community, or topic.
Multilingual
This tab contains links to pages for each language in which we have resources available on the site.
Legal system
This tab contains links to all the material on the site related to the legal system and the courts.
On the right-hand side, you will find a number of quick navigation methods.
Shortcuts
This section contains links to all the material on this site organized by format (for example, self-help guides). You can also find definitions of legal terms, and quick access to forms and legislation.
Tools
The Tools menu, when it appears, contains links to sites where you can download required or useful programs.
Quick links
Quick links, when they appear, contain links to other pages within the same section of the site. For example, the Quick links for a self-help guide include links to all the steps in the guide. Note that on the Who can help page, this heading is called Other services.
Top and bottom navigation
At the top and bottom of the screen are navigation links to:
Home What's new Site map Using this site About us Contact us Legal Services Society Feedback Disclaimer/Privacy
Where do I start?
If you see the issue or the community that you want to read about, use the drop-down links at the top of the home page.
If you already know which self-help guide or forms you need, use the links on the right side under Shortcuts. Also under Shortcuts, you may want to read a fact sheet for quick introductory information.
If you think you have a common question, check the Frequently asked questions. If you have a specific keyword, try the Site map or our search engine.
If you have a question that is not answered on the site and you want to ask a person, please send an email from the link on each of the Frequently asked questions pages. Provide as much information as you can, including where you live in BC and the level of court involved if possible (Provincial or Supreme). Your question (without your name or identifying details) and its answer may be added to this page at a later time.
If you have a technical question or would like to send us feedback on the website, please send an email from the Contact us page or complete our brief survey.
How to use the search tool
At the top right-hand side of your screen, immediately beneath the text size and Facebook/Twitter buttons, is a text box and Go button for our standard search. Enter your search word(s) in the text box and click Go. This search goes through all the pages of the Family Law in British Columbia website.
How to subscribe to RSS feeds
The initials RSS are short for Really Simple Syndication. An RSS feed pulls in fresh content automatically to let you know that a website has been updated. The Family Law website offers RSS feeds from its What's new pages (What's new on the Family Law website and What's new in family law).
Instructions for how to subscribe to an RSS feed.
Viewing and printing
Adjustable text size
To help people with visual impairments, this new version of our website includes an easy-to-use text resizer. Near the top of the page, on the right-hand side above the search box, are three buttons, each with a progressively larger "A" in them. Simply click the button to change the size of your text.
Tip: If, after increasing the font to the largest size, you find it is still not large enough, remember that all Web browsers have a built-in text sizer. In both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, you can find these by selecting the Text size option from your View menu.
Printing
Print any page by selecting Print from the File menu of your Web browser. When you print pages of this site, only the centre content will print out (the left and right sides of the page and the header and footer will be hidden).
Adobe Acrobat PDF documents
Many of the forms, instructions, and publications on this website are Adobe Acrobat files (also called Portable Document Format [PDF] files). PDF files are compact and download quickly. They open and print easily from both Macintosh and PC computers. Pages you print from PDF files will look almost the same as they do on screen.
To view these documents, you need Adobe Reader, which is available as a free download from Adobe. The software is self-installing; just double-click on the installer file. Although Adobe Acrobat Reader is a fairly large program and may take some time to download, you only have to do this once.
Many PDF files are made with bookmarks (a content list on the left-hand side of the screen that links to different sections in the PDF). Some multilingual PDF files on this site contain English bookmarks. To open these bookmarks, first open the PDF, then click on the second icon at the left-hand side of your screen (if you mouse over it and wait, it'll say "Bookmarks: Go to specific points of interest using bookmark links").
Viewing the forms and instructions on this website
Once you have installed Adobe Acrobat Reader, just click on the link to the file you want to open.
Audio-visual materials
Videos
The videos on the Family Law website are presented primarily in Flash video format. If you have the required Flash player (version 8 or later), select Watch video to go to a page where the video will play automatically. If you do not have the required player, you will see a list of small format Windows Media files of the same video (if available). You can select from this list of files to play each segment in order in the Windows Media Player.
If you don't have the required Flash player and you can download it, we strongly recommend you do so. Our videos' quality and viewing size are considerably better in this format. You can download the free Flash player from Adobe.