I Missed My Court Date for My Child Welfare Case — What Do I Do?

Contact your lawyer within hours of missing a court date. If an order was made in your absence, your lawyer can apply to set it aside if you had a legitimate reason for missing. Acting the same day matters — the longer you wait, the harder it is to undo what was decided without you.

Missing a court date happens. Life, transportation, emergencies, and anxiety about the court process itself are all real factors. What matters is what you do next.

What may have happened at the hearing you missed

If you were required to appear and did not, the court may have:

Adjourned to a new date, which your lawyer can confirm
Made an interim order in your absence — for example, extending a temporary custody order
Noted your absence in the record

Contact your lawyer immediately to find out what actually happened.

Getting an order set aside

If an order was made in your absence, your lawyer can apply to the court to have it set aside — meaning cancelled and reheard with you present. Courts will generally allow this if you had a legitimate reason for your absence and you act quickly.

Legitimate reasons include: medical emergency, hospitalization, transportation failure, family emergency, or not receiving proper notice of the hearing date. Your lawyer will need documentation where possible.

If you do not have a lawyer

Call Legal Aid BC: 1-866-577-2525. Explain that you missed a child welfare court date and an order may have been made in your absence. This is urgent — tell them that clearly.

Preventing this from happening again

For future court dates:

Write the date, time, and courtroom on paper and put it somewhere you will see it daily
Ask your lawyer or support person to call you the day before to confirm
Arrange transportation in advance, not the morning of
If you genuinely cannot make it, call your lawyer as early as possible — the court can sometimes reschedule if given enough notice

Your engagement in the process is evidence the court and MCFD both track. Consistent attendance demonstrates you are taking the process seriously and that your children’s return to you is your priority.

If you are an Indigenous family navigating child welfare in BC and need peer support, contact KFT-Families Society at [email protected], call Lori at 604-512-3266, or visit keeping-families-together.com. IFISC operates weekly peer support circles, connects families with culturally grounded resources, and provides guidance to parents at every stage of the child welfare process — at no cost.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to my child welfare case if I miss a court date?

If you miss a court date in a child welfare matter, the court may proceed in your absence. This means orders can be made without your input — including temporary custody orders or extensions of existing orders. Your absence may also be noted by MCFD as a lack of engagement and used in their assessment.

Can I get the hearing rescheduled if I missed it for a legitimate reason?

Yes. If you had a legitimate reason for missing the hearing — illness, emergency, miscommunication about the date — contact your lawyer immediately. Your lawyer can apply to the court to set aside any order made in your absence and reschedule the hearing. The sooner you act, the better the outcome.

Will missing one court date cause my children to be permanently removed?

One missed court date does not automatically lead to permanent removal. But it can result in orders being made without you, which may be harder to undo later. Acting quickly — contacting your lawyer within hours of missing a date — limits the consequences significantly.

You do not have to navigate this alone.

IFISC is operated by KFT-Families Society, an Indigenous-led nonprofit founded by people who have navigated the child welfare system firsthand. We run weekly peer support circles and connect families with culturally grounded resources across BC. Reach out — no paperwork, no waitlist.

[email protected] · keeping-families-together.com