Provincial Court Urgent Family Hearings During COVID-19

Course Instructors
The Honourable Judge Kathryn J. Ferriss — Provincial Court of BC, Surrey
The Honourable Judge Trudy A. Macdonald — Provincial Court of BC, Surrey

About the Course Instructors
The Honourable Judge Kathryn Ferriss obtained her law degree from UBC in 1986 and was called to the BC bar in 1987. Between 1988 and 1993 she was legal counsel with the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program. In 1993 she became a family staff lawyer with what was then the Westminster Community Legal Services Society and practiced in Port Coquitlam. She moved to the Legal Services Society's Vancouver office in 1997 where she continued as a family staff lawyer until 2002.

Between 2002 and 2015, Judge Ferriss was contracted by LSS to set up the Robson Square Family Duty Counsel Project where she was instrumental in the development, implementation and ultimate success of that program. During that time, she also acted as a consultant and coordinator with LSS regarding the Family Duty Counsel and Advice Lawyer programs, as well as the Parents' Legal Centre, Family Law Line and Mediation projects. She briefly held the position of LSS Manager, Family Law Services, prior to her appointment to the Provincial Court on July 31, 2015. She is assigned to Surrey Provincial Court.

From 2004 until her appointment, Judge Ferriss contributed to the CLEBC Family Practice Manual by authoring and updating the chapter on Provincial Court practice. She has been a presenter or chair at several conferences including CLEBC courses and Family Duty Counsel Conferences.

Judge Trudy Macdonald practiced family law for 23 years before her appointment to the Provincial Court bench in 2018. As an associate then partner at Peterson Stark Scott, she represented families in all levels of court in BC. At the start of her legal career, she worked as counsel for the Family Maintenance Program, and for the then-REMO program involving interjurisdictional support matters. Judge Macdonald was a family law mediator and collaborative family law professional. She was a member of the BC Hear the Child Roster, preparing Hear the Child reports for families and the court. She was regularly retained by the Ministry of Justice to represent children in care under the Child, Family and Community Service Act and she provided legal advice to Family Justice Counsellors and consulted on federal initiatives, such as the child support recalculation project. In addition to family law, Judge Macdonald acted as criminal defence counsel to children in care.

Notice to the profession regarding suspension of the usual operations

Automatic adjournments of hearings and other matters

Services/technologies being provided by the court for urgent family matters

What is an urgent matter

Options to consider before making an application

Procedures on urgent family matters

• application for urgent hearing and accompanying materials
• procedure once the application for urgent hearing is sent to the registry
• procedure after an urgent hearing is granted

Use of police enforcement clauses

Teleconference etiquette

Effect of an order made

What may happen as we come out of the pandemic