Estate Planning

Practice Direction Retrospective: Scheduling Appointments, Hearing Matters and Adjournments (Part 1 of 2)

By Hull and Hull LLP

It has now been almost a year since the April 1, 2009 Practice Direction Concerning the Estates List of the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto so I thought I'd start the week with a with a two-part blog containing a few general observations and some practice tips for Toronto. Today's topic is Scheduling Appointments.

The Scheduling Appointment was created to reduce adjournments and to make the court system more efficient and less costly. It preceded Ontario's new Rules of Civil Procedure and had many of the same goals in mind, most notably proportionality, which is now an overarching consideration. 

A Scheduling Appointment is ten minutes long and is a very versatile mechanism to allow you to get before the Court relatively quickly to obtain assistance. It can be used to 'speak to a matter', to set down a timetable or to obtain a consent order. They can be booked on two days' notice and generally you can get on the list within a week or two.

Adjourning a Scheduling Appointment

• If a Scheduling Appointment was booked through OSCAR or the Estates office, you can adjourn it administratively by filing your confirmation form cancelling the Scheduling Appointment or adjourning it to another date. It is best to do this as far in advance as possible. Once you file the confirmation form, you cannot easily amend it to get it off the door list. You should check OSCAR the day before the scheduled date to make sure the cancellation has been noted and the matter is not on the list for the day you seek to adjourn. If you fail to appear on a Scheduling Appointment, the Court can set a timetable or a hearing date in your absence.
• You can adjourn the Scheduling Appointment to a specific date and note this on your confirmation form but this is not necessary. If you are in negotiations or are otherwise not ready to address the matter, you should note on your confirmation form that you will bring it back to a Scheduling Appointment when the parties are ready. This will avoid endless re-scheduling of Scheduling Appointments. Since they are quick and easy to get, no need to schedule them way in advance.  
• If a Scheduling Appointment has been scheduled by the Court, counsel should appear to speak to an adjournment request. Although the Practice Direction doesn't specifically say this, it has been the de facto procedure adopted.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in tomorrow's blog about adjournments of Hearing Matters, and some general tips when appearing in Court on adjournments.

Have a great week!

Sharon Davis

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on March 22, 2010 (boomark / email).