Legalviews Personal

Scheduling, filing, and serving applications and statements of claim with courts is now complex. That interacts with time limits for doing so. The danger of missing an obvious time limit is very real.

Often the deadline is tight simply because of the time it takes to gather the information, draft papers, and get affidavits sworn. When the client first gives instructions to sue or make the application, often the time is not yet short.

So here are five suggestions you could try, to reduce the danger of filing or serving too late.

Leave nothing until the last day; you or your computer might fall ill that day.
Your documents will probably be prepared on a computer. So start the drafting process at once, especially all the formal parts like styles of cause. As each piece of information is obtained, fill it in on the existing draft. Make sure that everyone who will be needed to do something, such as swearing or signing, will be available on very short notice on the critical days.
At a very early stage, you or some other very reliable person should consult the court concerned, to determine the exact address and procedure needed to schedule and file, especially if doing so gets close to the deadline. If the court is the Court of Appeal, contact the case management officer in the relevant city (Edmonton or Calgary). And figure out well in advance precisely to whom or where to serve the filed documents. It may be better to serve more than one way, e.g. serve a person in charge, and also leave at the proper office or address.
If a copy of the document endorsed to show filing is not available in time for service deadlines, serve a copy without the endorsement, and then serve again a copy with the endorsement once that endorsed copy becomes available from the Registrar or Clerk. If there is more than one way to file or serve, use each method, to play it safe. And to persuade a judge later, that you took all the steps humanly possible.
Have two people attend on making the key steps such as booking (scheduling), filing, and serving. Each should check to find mistakes or misspellings, especially in computer addresses. And later that will give you a choice of who can swear a procedural affidavit, in case there arises a later dispute about whether deadlines were met or not, and how. The lawyer knowing all the privileged secrets is not an ideal witness to give affidavit evidence.

– Hon. J.E. Côté

HOW TO MEET COURT DEADLINES