Transfering a File Between Court Registries

Last revised July 15, 2026

In order to transfer a file between court registries, you must apply for a court order. The BC Supreme Court Civil Rules, Supreme Court Family Rules and BC Provincial Court Family Rules all have provisions allowing for the transfer of court files between registries, but the rules do not include specific criteria or guidelines to help draft a successful application. The relevant rules are:

• Supreme Court Civil Rule 23-1(13)
• Supreme Court Civil Rule 12-1(5) – for trial
• Supreme Court Civil Rule 8-2(6) – for an interlocutory application
• Supreme Court Family Rule 22-2(13)
• Provincial Court Family Rule 62(a)

Applying for the transfer order

Supreme Court

Some useful information to supplement the Supreme Court Rules can be found in BC Annual Practice and in McLachlin & Taylor’s British Columbia Practice.. According to these texts, the grounds for granting a transfer of proceedings are based on the “interests of justice” and the “balance of convenience”. For example, to determine whether a transfer is appropriate, a judge may consider what the financial burden would be for each of the parties or whether counsel would be able to travel and schedule hearings in the new location.

Provincial Court

Rule 62(a) of the Provincial Court Family rules provides that a judge may grant a transfer of a file to another registry via a case management order. An applicant submits the transfer request using a Form 10, Application for a Case Management Order and the rule provides no express direction as to the factors to be considered on the application.

Research strategy for finding a sample order (civil)

Unfortunately there are no easily accessible completed examples of successful applications to use as a guide, however there are a couple of options you can try: 

• The first is to  do a case law search to find a case with circumstances similar to your own. You can ‘note-up’ the relevant court rules to show cases that have cited them, do a keyword search, or some combination of the two. Once you find a case where a judge granted such an application, you can go to the court registry where the case was heard and request a copy of the application or order from the court record. It is important to keep in mind that public access to court records can be restricted. You will not be able to see a copy of an order if the record has been sealed. Supreme Court of British Columbia Court Record Access Policy provides a full description of the principles and policies that determine public access to records
• Another option is to search the "Pleadings, Motions and Facta" module within LexisAdvance Quicklaw (available on site at Courthouse Libraries). You can do a keywords search for cases that made applications to transfer a file to another registry. and view the filed application documents in the search results.

Once you have the order

After you get the order, you can find information about the details of the transfer process in Supreme Court from the Registrar’s Newsletter on the Courts of British Columbia website. Relevant questions and answers are listed under each rule number: Supreme Court Civil Rule 23-1(13); and Supreme Court Family Rule 22-2(13).

Content reviewed July 15, 2026