Ontario Litigation Update: COVID-19

COVID-19 is impacting all aspects of life including Ontario's Courts.

Thanks to the hard work, and responsiveness of the various justices, court staff, legislators, and other stakeholders - in a matter of days, Courts have suspended normal operations and established a framework for continuing to administer justice in the face of unprecedented challenges.

This article will briefly canvas the impacts of this new framework on Commercial and Civil matters in Ontario.

Ontario Court of Appeal

Effective March 17, 2020, the Ontario Court of Appeal suspended all scheduled appeals for a period of three (3) weeks until April 3, 2020. During this period, urgent appeals will be heard based on either the written materials or remotely.

Anyone wishing to have their matter heard on an urgent basis can send a request to the attention of the Senior Legal Officer at COA.SeniorLegalOfficer@ontario.ca.

Parties to non-urgent matters can request that their appeal be heard based on the written materials already filed, and single judge motions will continue to be heard remotely.

Information on changes to the Court of Appeal's process can be found here.

Ontario Superior Court of Justice

On March 15, 2020, Chief Justice Morawetz issued a "Notice to the Profession, the Public and the Media Regarding Civil and Family Proceedings" (the "Suspension Notice") suspending all regular operations of the Superior Court of Justice (SCJ) effective Tuesday March 17, 2020 until further notice.

The Court calls for the cooperation of counsel and parties to engage in every effort to resolve matters during the temporary suspension of regular operations.

If you are a lawyer, or a self-represented litigant with matters before the SCJ, it is well worth reading the entire Suspension Notice which can be found here. Some of the highlights from the Suspension Notice include:

1. The SCJ will continue to hear the following Civil and Commercial List (Toronto) matters:

   urgent and time-sensitive motions and applications in civil and commercial list matters, where immediate and significant financial repercussions may result if there is no judicial hearing. outstanding warrants issued in relation to a Small Claims Court or Superior Court civil proceeding. any other matter that the Court deems necessary and appropriate to hear on an urgent basis. The Bar and the public are advised that these matters will be strictly limited. A hearing may be conducted in writing, by teleconference or videoconference...