Alberta's New Family Law Procedure: How the Family Focused Protocol Is Impacting Clients

Alberta in 2026 has taken a new approach to the family legal process by introducing the Family Focus Protocol (FFP). The FFP is designed to tackle the traditional high conflict aspects of family law by streamlining specific matters and encouraging alternative resolutions.

Stokes Law LLP has the experience you need to resolve your matter through the FFP. Contact a Stokes Law LLP team member to understand further how your matter could be resolved through the FFP process.

The Goal of the Family Focused Protocol

The FFP has generally three goals:

1. To reduce conflict between the parties
2. To streamline legal procedures, and
3. Protect children from harmful impacts of prolonged disputes.

The Courts of Alberta recognized that a change needed to be made to achieve these goals. Often, family matters are drawn out, resulting in unnecessary costs and friction all while children are stuck in the middle of a legal battle that will significantly impact their lives.

How Does the FFP Reach their Goals?

Through Mandatory Requirements of Documents

The FFP has mandatory requirements to appear in front of a Justice. The mandatory requirements were once documents that were often filed later in the process causing unneeded delays but are now needed at the beginning of the process. Forcing the filing of documents at the beginning of the process allows for the Courts and the lawyers to focus in on their matters, cutting costs, preventing delays, and starting resolution of the parties with equal amount of information. The mandatory requirements are:

• Parenting After Separation
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Disclosure
• Meeting with Family Court Counselor.

Through the Requirement of Alternative Dispute Resolution

By requiring Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) such as mediation or arbitration, the parties are required to try to settle their matters outside of court. Although the parties are not forced to solve their disputes inside of ADR, forcing the parties to at least attempt ADR give the parties an opportunity to come to an amicable resolution of their matters.

Through Having Multiple Streams

There are three streams to resolve your matter, each being concerned with certain aspects of family law.

1. Rugular Family Process

This stream focuses on the matters that are not urgent or do not need a desk application.

1. Desk Applications

Desk applications deal with waiver/deferrals from the mandatory requirements, requests for Resolution Counsel Meetings, Notice to Disclose, and asking for leave for administrative limits. General, the Desk Applications are reserved for procedural or administrative requests.

1. Urgent Matters

Urgent Matters are defined on the Court website as matters that have serious consequences to persons or harm to property that may arise if the hearing does not proceed.

What does This Mean for Families?

The FFP seems daunting to lawyers and clients, but what it ultimately provides are more efficient steps to resolve family matters.

With the mandatory requirements, lawyers are instructed to arrive fully prepared, raising expectations for preparation. A lawyer and the party need to show up with their ducks in a row or else their matter won’t get heard. As well, the mandatory requirements put the needed information and documents earlier in the case, resulting in a more direct and efficient approach to the rest of the matter. All of this gives lawyers and parties clearer timelines and responsibilities to resolve the matter.

With the multiple streams to see a Justice and the specifics of each of those steams makes the issues of any given case much more manageable and allows for urgent matters to be resolved in a timely manner.

The Alberta Courts have provided a guide to the FFP, and other resources to answer questions about the new process here.

Conclusion

The Family Focus Protocol may only be a few months old, but it seeks to tackle the challenges that innately come from family matters. Hopefully, through the usage of the FFP, there will be less friction, more efficient ways of handling difficult matters, and more resolutions that result in amicable relationships to the parties involved.