Ontario & Alberta · family law intake

You tell it once. Then you can see the next step.

FamilyLawPath is the front door to a family law firm. It listens, repeats back what you said in your own words, and shows you where you are on a path that most people walk without ever being shown a map. A person from the firm calls you.

Start the path

Every screen has a leave button in the same place. Pressing it closes this site immediately and replaces it. Escape twice does the same thing.

  • No account to create Nothing to sign up for and no password to remember.
  • Nothing here costs you anything Telling the firm what happened is free. Fees are quoted in writing.
  • You can stop at any point What you have written stays yours until you send it.
Build scaffolding Film mode Firm view
Where you are

A map, not a promise.

These are the stages a family matter usually moves through. They are typical. No date is attached to any of them, because nobody can honestly tell you when a court will do anything.

What the software can tell you is which stage you are standing in, and what the firm is waiting on. That is the part people are never told.

  1. You say what happened

    In your own words, once. Typed or spoken. Nothing is a form field until it has to be.

    Stage 01
  2. Somebody from the firm calls

    At a time you said is safe for you. Text only, if that is safer.

    Stage 02
  3. The firm takes the matter on

    A retainer agreement, in writing, with the scope of the work stated in it.

    Stage 03
  4. Papers are prepared and served

    Applications, answers, financial statements. Prepared by the firm, reviewed with you.

    Stage 04
  5. Conferences, then resolution or trial

    Most matters resolve before trial. That is a statement about the system, not about yours.

    Stage 05
The first ten minutes

Three things happen, and none of them is a form.

01

It repeats you back

Two lines, in your words, before anything else. Not a summary and not advice. If it got it wrong you correct it, and it uses your correction.

02

It asks how to reach you safely

Before it asks anything about the matter. A window you choose, or text only, or no contact at that number at all.

03

Paperwork comes last

Orders, agreements, statements — photographed with your phone, whenever you are ready. You can keep going without any of it.

Safety comes before intake

If a safety concern comes up, the intake stops.

Not paused politely while a chat window keeps talking. Stops. The screen changes to shelter and crisis numbers for your region, and the matter questions do not come back until you say to bring them back.

There is no celebration anywhere in that part of the product. No progress bar, no green flash, no sound. It is the one place where taking the encouragement out is the whole design.

What the firm sees
  • The file moves to the frontA safety flag reorders the queue. Nothing about paying reorders the queue.
  • A person acknowledges itAn operator has to press it. Software does not get to decide a safety flag is handled.
  • Safe contact rules travel with itDo-not-call numbers, text-only preferences, and safe windows are attached to the file itself.
  • Mediation is switched offNo file carrying an open safety flag is offered a mediation route.
The part that is not a promise

A safety concern stops the intake and a person answers it — enforced in the software, not in someone's good intentions.

It is a constraint, not a policy. The matter questions are not reachable while a flag is open. There is no screen in the product that routes around it.

Intervals govern re-routing, not a clock. If a flagged file is not acknowledged inside an interval, it re-routes to the next operator. No callback time is ever quoted to a client.

Stages are typical and dates are never shown. The path tells you where you are standing. It does not tell you when anything will happen, because that is not knowable.

Boundaries built into the product

What this will not do.

No legal advice, no outcome predictionIt will not tell you what you are entitled to, what a judge will decide, or how a matter is likely to end.
No support or property numbers on a client screenA figure on this screen would read as a promise no matter how it was labelled. Calculations stay on the firm side.
No outreach to anyone under pressureClient-initiated only. Nobody is approached, and the product never solicits a person in a moment of distress.
Nothing is sent to the other partyThe log, the vault, and the intake are yours and the firm's. This product does not contact the other side.