civil dispute
Superior Court Remains Open
The Superior Courts remain open for “time sensitive and urgent” matters. What qualifies as time sensitive and urgent is still being determined and will develop over the coming days and weeks. The Court has stated that for civil matters, at minimum, urgent cases are those where “immediate and significant financial repercussions may result if there is no judicial hearing.” Judges retain the discretion to determine whether any particular case is necessary and appropriate to hear on an urgent basis.
Temporarily suspend normal operations
The Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal have temporarily suspended normal operations. All matters in the Superior Court throughout the province that were scheduled to be heard after March 17 have been adjourned until further notice, even if the hearings were scheduled to be heard by videoconference or telephone. The same is true for Ontario tribunals, including the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, Landlord and Tenant Board and Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Filings
With respect to filings, registries at the Superior Court and the Court of Appeal are closed for in-person filings. The courts are now temporarily accepting filings over email. Statements of claim can be issued online. For matters in the Superior Court that require affidavits, the Superior Court’s March 15 Notice to the Profession states that an unsworn affidavit may be provided if the affiant is able to participate in the hearing. The Law Society of Ontario has stated that, at least on a temporary basis during the state of emergency, it will interpret the legal requirements for being present to commission an affidavit to allow for “remote commissioning” through means such as video conferencing.
Ontario
Court of Appeal
Superior Court of Justice
Superior Court of Justice
- April 6: All hearings will be conducted remotely until further notice
- Parties will not be required to file hard copies of documents for all matters to be heard on or after April 14, 2020
- All documents must be filed electronically by e-mail, by online file sharing service, or by USB key delivered by mail or courier
- Documents may be served electronically
- March 30: Before the Court of Appeal only, the suspension of filing deadlines does not apply to civil proceedings in which a notice of hearing has been sent and which proceedings have not been adjourned, and civil proceedings that are being case managed
- March 17: Except as otherwise provided, the Court of Appeal will suspend all scheduled appeals for a period of 3 weeks (until April 3, 2020)
- During this period, urgent appeals will be heard based on written materials or remotely
- Parties on non-urgent appeals can request that their appeal be heard in writing
- Single judge motions will continue to be heard remotely as scheduled for the week of March 16, 2020, and motions may proceed on filed written materials on consent of the parties
Superior Court of Justice
Superior Court of Justice
Superior Court of Justice
- May 13: Affidavits may be commissioned remotely by videoconference documents may be served by e-mail, and hearings may proceed remotely without consent or a court order
- May 5: The Court will not resume in-person hearings until July 6, 2020, at the earliest; however, virtual hearings will proceed, and the list of matters which can be heard virtually will soon be expanded
- March 20: Filings will continue to be accepted at the Court’s Registry offices but filing by email is encouraged. As of Monday March 23, 2020, the list of documents that can be e-filed or issued through the Province of Ontario's e-filing portal is being expanded to include additional documents (Rule 4.05.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure):
- A Statement of defence, including a counterclaim or a crossclaim, and a defence to counterclaim or to crossclaim
- A notice of discontinuance and a consent to discontinuance
- A third-party claim and a third-party defence
- A jury notice, and
- A certificate of action under section 36 of the Construction Act
- March 15: Limited operations until further notice, and all hearings are adjourned
- The Court will continue to hear urgent matters during this emergency period; A hearing may be conducted in writing, by teleconference or videoconference, unless the Court determines that an in-person hearing is necessary
- Parties can expect the Court to grant extensions of time once the Court’s normal operations resume, although as of March 16, 2020, limitation periods and filing deadlines are suspended
- https://www.ontariocourts.ca/coa/en/notices/covid-19/ochome.htm
- https://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/notices-and-orders-covid-19/
