“Pleadings frame the case before the court. They tell the court what the case is about and they are the mechanism by which parties tell one another the case the other has to meet. Thus, generally, a court will not make an Order on a motion or at trial that has not been sought in the underlying pleadings.
Having said that, where parties are clearly on notice of one another’s positions in a matter, and there is no element of surprise or inability to know the case to be met, courts have taken a practical and non-technical approach to this principle in many cases. The authority for so doing is often cited as Rule 2 of the Family Law Rules, which provides that the primary objective of the FLR is to deal with matters justly. This includes ensuring that the procedure is fair to all parties, saving expense and time, dealing with a case in a manner that is appropriate to its importance and complexity, and giving appropriate resources to the case recognizing the need to give resources to other cases. See for example: Magcalas v. Magcalas, 2020 ONSC 595 at 65; Smith v. Smith, 2016 ONSC 1157 at 167 – 175; and Adorno v. Adorno, 2019 ONSC 5517 at 13. Applications of Rule 8 of the FLR similarly emphasize practicality and a non-technical approach where both parties have been clearly aware of the claims in the case. It is fair to say that where parties are self-represented, a broad and practical approach to pleadings will assist in treating matters justly.”