Family Law: The Continuing Record

The continuing record has all of the documents filed with the court in a case.

The continuing record is composed of two volumes: an endorsements volume and a documents volume.

The endorsements volume contains a cumulative table of contents, the endorsements in the matter, and the orders in the matter. The documents volume contains all of the documents filed in the case.

There are different continuing records for support enforcement cases, child protection cases, and status review hearings. Parties can no longer simply elect to have separate records for each party. Currently, in cases other than enforcement cases, child protection cases, and status review hearings, in order to have separate records for each party, a court order to this effect is required (Family Law Rules, Rule 9(7)).

If the continuing record has not been separated, the parties are jointly responsible for adding to the record under the court clerk's supervision. In the case of separated records, each party is responsible, under the clerk's supervision, for adding the documents the party files to the party's own record (Family Law Rules, Rule 9(11)).

No party shall serve or file any document that is already in the record, despite any requirement in the Family Law Rules that the document be served and filed (Family Law Rules, Rule 9(13)). Furthermore, no document may be removed from the continuing record, except by court order (Family Law Rules, Rule 9(16)).

A party who is relying on a document in the record is required to refer to that document by its tab in the continuing record, except in a support enforcement continuing record (Family Law Rules, Rule 9(15)).