This section describes the services, websites, and publications that can help you with child support.

Services

Family Law Information Centres

Family Law Information services are provided at various locations throughout Alberta. Staff at these locations help the public (including self represented individuals), the legal community, the judiciary and government offices/agencies, by providing the following:

• General information about family law;
• Plain language explanations of court procedure;
• Court forms for most family law applications in either the Court of Queen’s Bench or the Provincial Court;
• Help in making sure that the court forms are properly filled out; and
• Child Support Guidelines calculations to self represented litigants and to the judiciary.

Information is offered on many topics relating to family law, including:

• Child support
• Spousal/partner support
• Maintenance Enforcement
• Child custody/access or parenting time
• Guardianship of or contact with a child
• Enforcement of time with a child
• Inter-jurisdictional support issues
• Divorce and corollary relief proceedings
• Family violence restraining/protection orders

Court forms and instructions are available for applications:

• For custody, access, child or spousal support (or to change those Orders) under the Divorce Act;
• For any relief under the Family Law Act;
• To apply for or change support under the Interjurisdictional Support Orders Act; and
• For many other types of family law matters.

Note: The staff at Family Justice Services cannot give legal advice or an opinion about what the court would do in your case.

Family Mediation Services

Family mediation is an interest-based process that gives parties an opportunity to meet together with a neutral mediator. Mediators encourage the parties to communicate, negotiate and cooperate to resolve disputes outside of court.

There is no cost to qualifying families. To qualify, there must be at least one dependent child, under the age of 18 years and one or both parties must have an income of less than $40,000 per year.

There does not have to be a court action started to make use of the Family Mediation Services. However, the services are also available to families with court actions in either Provincial Court or the Court of Queen’s Bench. The parties may come to mediation on their own, or they may agree to come with their lawyers.

Parties who want to attend mediation are pre-screened to make sure that mediation will be appropriate for them. Both parties must agree to attend mediation.

Child Support Services

This service helps parents who are on limited incomes, including Alberta Works and AISH, incomes get child support agreements or court orders.

In Edmonton, call 780-415-6400. In Calgary, call 403-297-6060. For all other municipalities, call 310-0000 and ask for the Child Support Services office closest to you.

Maintenance Enforcement Program

The Maintenance Enforcement Program (MEP) collects court-ordered child support, spousal and partner support, and enforces as needed.

Legal Aid Alberta: Family Law Office

With offices located in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer and Wetaskiwin, the Family Law Office (FLO) assists clients who have a family law legal problem and who have qualified for services through Legal Aid Alberta. FLO lawyers provide legal representation to clients in all levels of court for matters including:

• separation and divorce,
• custody, access, parenting orders, contact orders,
• child maintenance and spousal support,
• guardianship,
• child protection/child welfare,
• matrimonial property disputes,
• representation of children,
• grandparent contact orders, and
• Hague Convention applications.

Websites

Law Central Alberta: This website provides Albertans with links to legal resources and information on all aspects of family law.

FamiliesChange.ca: This website contains information to help all members of the family cope with separation and divorce. There are resources for children, teens, and parents.