By Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce · Updated
If one has arrived, you have one month and sixteen categories of documents to produce. If you have sent one and nothing has come back, there is a route that does not require a hearing. This guide is for Alberta. The Notice to Disclose is an Alberta mechanism. Ontario uses a Financial Statement under its own rules; British Columbia uses a different form again. Nothing here transfers.
| What it is | A form used in the Alberta Court of King's Bench to compel financial disclosure from the other party in a family matter. |
|---|---|
| Governing rule | Rule 12.41 of the Alberta Rules of Court (AR 124/2010). Read in the regulation itself, 3 Sep 2026. |
| Form | Form FL-17, prescribed by Rule 12.41(3). Verified from the regulation, 3 Sep 2026. |
| What it demands | 16 categories of financial documents. Full list below. |
| Deadline to comply | Documents must be provided "within 1 month of service of this Notice." Verified from the form, 19 Aug 2026. |
| It is also an application | The form is titled "Notice to Disclose / Application" — it doubles as a court application. |
| If it is ignored | A desk application route has been available since 8 May 2020, allowing a Disclosure Order to be sought by email without a hearing. |
| Form version | The government form reviewed for this guide is marked "Revised April 2014". Check for a current version before using it. |
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Almost every contested financial issue in a family matter — child support, spousal support, division of property — depends on knowing what each person actually has and earns. Without that, nothing can be calculated and nothing can be negotiated in good faith.
The Notice to Disclose is Alberta's mechanism for compelling that information. It is not a polite request from one lawyer to another. It is a court form, served on the other party, that sets out precisely what must be produced and by when.
It is also, as the title indicates, an application. The document is headed "Notice to Disclose / Application", meaning it operates as both a demand and a step in the court process.
The form requires the served party to provide the following. This list is taken directly from the Alberta government form.
1. Personal income tax returns for the three most recent taxation years, or the tax slips if returns were not filed 2. Notices of assessment and reassessment for the three most recent taxation years 3. Statements of earnings — the three most recent 4. Income from employment insurance, pensions, or other sources 5. Student funding statements, if applicable 6. Self-employment business documents for the three most recent years 7. Partnership income confirmation for the three most recent years 8. Financial statements for privately held corporations for the three most recent years 9. Documentation of special or extraordinary expenses 10. Trust settlement agreements and statements 11. Bank account statements — six months 12. Credit card statements — six months 13. A monthly budget of expenses 14. A sworn itemised list of income, assets and liabilities 15. Investment account statements — most recent 16. A list of exemptions, in matrimonial property cases
Two observations that matter practically.
Items 6 to 10 are the ones that generate disputes. Self-employment income, privately held corporations, partnerships and trusts are where income can be structured in ways that make a line on a tax return an unreliable guide. If either party has any of these, expect this to be the slow part.
Item 16 is Alberta-specific and easy to underestimate. Exemptions — property brought into the relationship, inheritances, gifts, certain damages awards — are only worth what you can trace. Assembling that paper trail is your work, and the earlier it starts the better it goes.
The form is explicit: the documents must be provided "within 1 month of service of this Notice."
That is a month to gather three years of tax returns and assessments, six months of bank and credit card statements, three years of corporate or business financials if applicable, and a sworn statement of everything you own and owe.
If you have been served with one, start on the day it arrives. The bank statements alone can take a week to obtain if you do not have online access going back far enough, and corporate financials often require your accountant, who has their own timetable.
If you cannot comply in full within the month, that is not automatically a disaster — but it needs to be communicated, in writing, with an explanation and a realistic date, rather than met with silence. Silence is what triggers the next step.
This is the part most people do not know about, and it changed in 2020.
The Court of King's Bench introduced a desk application procedure, effective 8 May 2020, for exactly this situation. It allows a party who has served a Notice to Disclose and received inadequate disclosure to seek a Disclosure Order without scheduling a hearing.
The sequence, as set out by the Court:
1. The applicant files and serves the Notice to Disclose (Desk Application) together with a blank Response to Request for Disclosure form. 2. The respondent has one month from service to file a Financial Disclosure Statement and, where they cannot provide full disclosure, a Response to Request for Disclosure explaining why. 3. If disclosure remains incomplete after that month, the applicant may submit the desk application by email to the relevant judicial centre, without further notice to the respondent.
The submission contains only four things: the Request for Disclosure Order, proof of service of the Notice to Disclose, the completed Response to Request for Disclosure if one was provided, and a proposed Disclosure Order.
A Justice then reviews it on the papers and either grants it — signing the Disclosure Order — or directs the matter into a scheduling process for a hearing.
The significance is procedural but real: it removes the need to book, prepare for and attend a court appearance simply because the other side did not produce documents. That is a meaningful saving in both time and legal fees.
Do not ignore it. It is a court form with a court deadline and an application attached. Ignoring it leads directly to the desk application route above.
Read all sixteen categories and mark which apply to you. Several will not — you may have no corporate interests, no trust, no student funding. Note which are not applicable rather than leaving gaps.
Start with what takes longest. Corporate financials, anything requiring an accountant, and older bank statements. The tax returns and payslips are the easy part and can wait.
Assemble it in an organised form. Labelled, in the order the form asks for, as a single package. This is not fastidiousness — disclosure produced as a disorganised pile generates follow-up requests, and follow-up requests generate legal fees on both sides.
Keep a copy of exactly what you sent and when. Disputes about whether something was produced are common and are settled by records.
Be careful with the sworn statement. Item 14 is sworn. Accuracy matters in a way that is different from the rest of the package, and this is a point to take advice on rather than complete quickly.
Do not withhold selectively. Deciding for yourself that something is irrelevant, or that they do not need to see it, is a decision with consequences. If there is a genuine reason a document should not be produced, that is a conversation with your lawyer.
Verification note. The form version reviewed is marked "Revised April 2014". Check the Court of King's Bench or Alberta.ca for the current version before filing anything. This page has been prepared for legal accuracy review before publication.
Rule 12.41 of the Alberta Rules of Court (AR 124/2010). Subrule (3) is the one that creates the notice: a party "may file a notice to disclose, in Form FL-17, requesting only those documents that are relevant and material to the proceeding." Subrule (7) is the one with teeth: if the respondent fails to provide the documents "within one month of being served with the notice to disclose," the court may order production by a date, draw an adverse inference and impute income, or award costs that fully compensate the applicant. Two limits worth knowing. Once a final support order exists, subrule (4) allows the notice only once a year without a variation application, and under subrule (5) such a notice can ask only for items 1 to 9 on the form unless the court orders otherwise.
One month from service. The form says so, and Rule 12.41(7) attaches the consequences to that same month.
Communicate in writing before the deadline, explain what is outstanding and why, and give a realistic date. Where a Notice to Disclose (Desk Application) has been served, there is a specific Response to Request for Disclosure form for setting out why full disclosure cannot be provided. Use it rather than saying nothing.
Since May 2020 there is a desk application route to a Disclosure Order — submitted by email, decided on the papers, without a hearing. Your lawyer can start it once the month has run.
No. Both are disclosure mechanisms but they are different instruments under different rules, with different forms and different timelines. Ontario's family disclosure runs through its own Financial Statement forms under the Ontario Family Law Rules.
Not necessarily, but the sworn statement at item 14 and the exemptions list at item 16 are both places where getting it wrong is costly. Even a single hour of advice before you swear anything is worth having.
Last reviewed September 2026. Researched and written by Neta, founder of SortMyDivorce. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice — laws, fees and forms change, so please confirm current details with the official sources above or a local family lawyer.
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