Guided Pathway to answer an application

CLEO’s Guided Pathway for answering a family law case is for people in family court who have received a Form 8 or Form 8A: Application that was issued at the Superior Court of Justice.

You can use this pathway to fill out Form 10: Answer to respond to the family law court case started by your spouse, partner, or child’s other parent.

You will be able to:

say which things in the application you agree with and which things you disagree with
make your own claims for support, decision-making responsibility, parenting time, or other issues
provide your own history about your relationship and the important facts that support what you have to say

The pathways ask you questions about your situation, give you information to help answer them, and creates documents based on your answers.

The pathways are free to use. When you’re finished, you can save or print your forms. You will also get instructions about how to give them to the court.

You can use it if…	What do you need?
you want to respond to a Form 8 or Form 8A that was issued at a Superior Court of Justice you want to ask for your own orders for: a divorce, if your spouse has not already asked for one (as long as you or your spouse have lived in Ontario for at least one year) child support decision-making responsibility or parenting time spousal support property division other family law orders like a restraining order	You will need: the Form 8 or Form 8A you received copies of agreements, court orders, Notice of Calculation, and Notices of Recalculation birth dates, names and previous divorce information for you and your spouse, partner, or child’s other parent information about any children you and your spouse, partner, or child’s other parent have income information for you and your spouse, partner, or child’s other parents

You can use it if…

What do you need?

you want to respond to a Form 8 or Form 8A that was issued at a Superior Court of Justice
you want to ask for your own orders for:
- a divorce, if your spouse has not already asked for one (as long as you or your spouse have lived in Ontario for at least one year)
- child support
- decision-making responsibility or parenting time
- spousal support
- property division
- other family law orders like a restraining order

You will need:

the Form 8 or Form 8A you received
copies of agreements, court orders, Notice of Calculation, and Notices of Recalculation
birth dates, names and previous divorce information for you and your spouse, partner, or child’s other parent
information about any children you and your spouse, partner, or child’s other parent have
income information for you and your spouse, partner, or child’s other parents

If you have received a Form 8 or Form 8A that was issued at an Ontario Court of Justice and you want to ask for a divorce or claims related to property, you must start a Form 8: Application (General) in the Superior Court of Justice. You can do this using the Guided Pathway for children, support, and property issues in separation and divorce. But, if you only want to make your own claim for support, your case can stay in the Ontario Court of Justice.

If you’re not sure whether to use this pathway, talk to a lawyer.

Using this pathway

It can take as little as 30 minutes to complete the pathway if you have all the information you need to answer the questions. It will take longer in more complicated situations.

You can sign up to create an account or use the pathway as a guest. If you choose not to create an account, the system will time out after 1 hour of inactivity. You must create an account if you want to save your work on the system, or use the other pathways.

Any personal information that you enter into the pathways is confidential. CLEO will not give your personal information to anyone unless you ask us to do this. Read more in the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Need help?

If you need help using the Guided Pathways or have questions, visit our FAQs page.

CLEO’s Guided Pathways don’t give you legal advice. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer.