Form 12: Application About a Protection Order
Use Form 12 to apply for a BC Provincial Court family-law protection order or to change or terminate an existing order; different rules apply to with-notice and without-notice applications.
Choose one request on the official form: a new order, a change or a termination. Complete the matching schedule and follow the rules for giving notice.
What does Form 12 request?
Choose one of the three requests in the prescribed form: a new protection order (Schedule 1), a change to a current order (Schedule 2), or termination of a current order (Schedule 3). A protection order under the Family Law Act addresses risk of family violence. The application is not itself the protection order; a judge must decide whether to make an order.
How to complete Form 12
- Identify the court registry, your name, the other person and any existing court file or protection order, where relevant.
- Select the order you seek and fill in the matching schedule. Do not complete the wrong schedule for changing or ending an existing order.
- State relevant facts clearly: incidents, dates, any current safety concerns, evidence and terms you want the court to consider.
- Decide whether the application is with notice or seeks to proceed without notice. If without notice, explain why notice should not be required rather than leaving that section empty.
- File the application and supporting evidence. Follow the court/registry directions about the appearance and, where relevant, have documents personally served using the allowed procedure.
If you are giving notice
Under Rule 68, an adult who is not a party must personally deliver the filed application and supporting material to the other party at least seven days before the appearance. That adult must complete Form 7 (Certificate of Service). Do not treat email or postal delivery as a substitute for personal service unless the court authorizes an relevant alternative.
If you seek to proceed without notice
Rule 67 allows an application without advance notice, but requires a statement of reasons. The judge decides how to proceed. Protection applications may be made before relevant early-resolution or parenting education steps under Rule 66. Where urgent safety is involved, ask the court registry or legal support service about the correct immediate process.
How evidence may be presented
Rule 69 permits evidence at a protection-order hearing orally on oath or affirmation, or by affidavit. For a without-notice application, explain why you need to proceed without telling the other party ahead of time (Rule 67). A court may ask for further information before deciding.
Changing or terminating an existing order
Use Form 12 with Schedule 2 to ask to change an existing order or Schedule 3 to ask to terminate it. Under Rule 71, changing the terms or duration requires the judge to terminate the existing order and issue a new Form 13 order. A party cannot cancel a protection order merely by agreeing privately with the other party.
Worked example
A protection order is approaching expiry and the protected person believes the risk remains. They use Form 12 to ask the judge to change the existing order, explain the continued risks and include supporting documents. If a change is granted, the judge issues a replacement Form 13 rather than amending the old document in place.
Safety and next steps
Immediate danger: call 911. For confidential victim support and safety planning, see VictimLinkBC. Read the exact terms and dates of any order, and do not assume a pending application suspends an existing order.