Part 6: Serving Documents

Over the course of your family court case, you will need to:

Serve documents, which means giving a copy of your court documents to the other parties in the case.
File proof of service to show the court that you served the documents.

This helps make sure that everyone involved knows the status of your court case.

Rule 6 of the Family Law Rules tells you about how to serve documents.

There are two types of service:

Regular service
Special service

Whichever method you use, you have to serve documents within specific time limits so that the other party has enough time to respond.

You have to be at least 18 years old to serve documents. If you’re under 18, you should ask somebody else to serve documents for you.

If it isn’t safe for you or a friend or family member to serve the documents and you cannot afford to hire a professional process server, you can ask the court staff to arrange to have your documents served for you.

Regular Service

Most documents can be served by regular service. This means you can serve the documents by sending them to the other party or their lawyer by:

E-mail.
Mail.
Courier (same-day or next-day service).
Fax, as long as:
- The documents you’re serving are not more than 20 pages, unless the other party consents or the court orders in advance that you can fax more than 20 pages.
- You’re not faxing a trial record, appeal record, factum, or book of authorities, unless the other party consents in advance.
Document exchange (this is when you deposit the documents at a document exchange belonging to the other party or their lawyer).

If the other party agrees, or if a judge orders it, you can also serve the document by electronic document exchange.

If you serve by fax, email, or an electronic document exchange, the first page of the fax, body of the email, or record of service should include:

Date and time of the service.
Sender’s name, telephone number, and fax number or email address.
Name of the person or lawyer to be served.
Total number of pages served.
Title or a description of the document.
The name and telephone number of a person to contact in case of technical difficulty in receiving the documents being served.

Even if it’s not required, you can also always serve your documents using the special service methods described below.

Special Service

Special service includes serving a document by one of the following methods:

Leaving a copy with the person who is being served.
Leaving a copy with the person’s lawyer of record in the case, or with a lawyer who accepts service in writing on a copy of the document.
Mailing a copy of the document along with Form 6: Acknowledgement of Service, which the person being served must complete and return to you by mail.
Giving a copy of the document, in an envelope addressed to the person being served, to an adult who lives at the same address as that person, and then mailing a second copy to the address on the same day or the next day.

There are certain documents that generally require special service, and you cannot personally serve these documents yourself:

An Application (Form 8 or Form 8A).
A Motion to Change (Form 15), along with an affidavit (Form 14A).
A document that could lead to the imprisonment of the person receiving it, such as:
- A Summons to Witness (Form 23).
- A Notice of Contempt Motion (Form 31).
- A Notice of Motion (Form 14) or Notice of Default Hearing (Form 30) in which the person to be served faces a possibility of imprisonment.

You cannot personally serve these documents yourself. These documents must be served by:

A friend or family member who is at least 18 years old.
A professional process server (someone you pay to serve your documents). You can get the name of a process server online.

Serving Documents on an Agency or another Person

In some cases, you may also have to serve your documents on an agency or another third party. This will depend on your specific situation, such as the issues in your case and any prior court orders.

Regardless of the documents being served, there are certain agencies and people that you personally can always serve (you do not need to ask a family member, friend, or process server), including:

A representative of a band or First Nations, Inuit, or Métis community
A children’s aid society
The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services
A municipality, excluding a lower-tier municipality in a regional municipality
The Director of the Family Responsibility Office
The Children’s Lawyer
The Public Guardian and Trustee
The Registrar General

Serving Documents outside of Canada

If you’re serving documents outside of Canada, there are special rules that may apply to you under the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (the “Convention”). These special rules may impact how you are allowed to serve your documents.

For example, if you’re serving documents to someone who lives in China, you cannot use any of the regular or special service methods described above. The Convention requires a designated person or institution to request that China’s Central Authority serve your documents for you. You must also get your documents translated into Chinese and pay a foreign service fee.

The Ministry of the Attorney General has created service options and informational material to help you follow the rules in the Convention.

When to Serve and File Documents

You have to serve and file documents within a specific timeframe so that everybody involved in your case has the information they need.

For example:

An Application (Form 8 or Form 8A) or Motion to Change (Form 15) must be served immediately on every other party.
An Answer (Form 10) or Response to Motion to Change (Form 15B) must be served and filed within:
- 30 calendar days of getting an Application if you were served in Canada or the United States, or
- 60 calendar days of getting an Application if you were served outside Canada or the United States.
A Reply (Form 10A) must be served and filed within 10 calendar days of getting the Answer or Response to Motion to Change.
Conference documents (Forms 17, 17A, 17C, 17E, or the Trial Scheduling Endorsement Form) must be served and filed:
- At least 6 business days before the conference date if you asked for the conference, or if you are the applicant and no other party asked for the conference (for example, a judge scheduled the conference).
- At least 4 business days before the conference date if you received a notice of conference from the other party, or if you are the respondent and no other party asked for the conference.
Documents to bring a motion with notice (Forms 14 or 14B and Form 14A) must be served at least 6 business days and filed at least 4 business days before the motion date.
Documents responding to a motion must be served and filed:
- At least 4 business days before the motion date if the other party bringing the motion used Form 14, or
- At least 4 business days after being served with the other party’s motion materials if they used Form 14B.

Counting Days

If you don’t count time or days correctly, court staff may not accept your documents because you haven’t followed the rules. Rule 3 of the Family Law Rules tells you how to count time correctly.

You have to start counting from the day after the effective service day. The effective service day depends on how the documents were served.

If the documents were served by:	The effective service day is:
Leaving a copy with the person being served or their lawyer	The same day if the documents are left before 4:00 p.m. The next day if the documents are left after 4:00 p.m.
Mail	Five days after documents are mailed
Same-day courier	The day after the courier picks up the documents
Next-day courier	Two days after the courier picks up the documents
Fax, email, or electronic document exchange	The same day if the documents are sent before 4:00 p.m. The next day if the documents are sent after 4:00 p.m.
Leaving a copy at the other party’s home with another adult who lives there, and then also mailing a copy to that address	Five days after the documents are mailed

However, if the effective service day would be a day on which the court is closed (for example, Saturday, Sunday, or a holiday), then the effective service day becomes the next day that the court is open.

If you have seven days or more to serve or file your documents, or to confirm your court date, you must include Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays when you’re counting days.

If you have less than seven days to serve or file your documents, or to confirm your court date, you do not include Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays when you’re counting days.

If the last day to serve or file your documents or confirm your court date falls on a weekend, holiday, or another day when the court is closed, then the time period is extended to the next day that the court is open.

Filing Proof of Service with Your Documents

Every time that you serve documents on another party in your case, you have to give the court proof that they received the document by completing Form 6B: Affidavit of Service and filing this form with your original documents at the court office before the applicable deadline.

To complete and file Form 6B:

Indicate when, where, and how the documents were served by checking the applicable boxes on Form 6B.
The person who served the documents must swear or affirm that the information in Form 6B is true and sign the form in front of a commissioner for taking affidavits. There are commissioners for taking affidavits at the family court office who will do this for free. Remember, it is a criminal offence to swear or affirm a false or misleading affidavit.
File Form 6B with the court, along with original copies of the documents that you served, before the applicable deadline. You can file your documents online using Justice Services Online or in-person at a courthouse.

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