News & Announcements

Effective immediately, if you wish to serve a commencement document in a foreign country that is a Contracting State to the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters, you must comply with the Hague Service Convention requirements. New reference material, including forms and instruction booklets have been made available on the Court site. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

In order to facilitate the more timely processing of draft Orders submitted to the Court via email, counsel and parties are asked to send draft Orders in .doc or docx (ie., Microsoft Word) format in Justice Chambers and Family Chambers, and PDF format in Applications Judges' Chambers. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

A Criminal Appearance Court (CAC) Adjournment Form is now available for Counsel and Court use. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

The Alberta Debtor Support Project ramps up existing pro bono legal resources, and also offers two new resources to assist Albertans struggling with debt. The Project website provides an overview of the resources available and offers a portal for lawyers, both active and retired, to volunteer to assist Albertans dealing with debt. Volunteers will receive detailed online training to meet the expected increased demand for assistance. The project hopes to partner with additional Approved Legal Service Providers throughout Alberta to encourage and train their volunteers. For more information, please refer to the full announcement.

It is now possible for counsel to file all materials in Civil and Family proceedings electronically, via email. However, in some locations, up to 50% of the materials received by the Court have been filed with the clerk, at the counter, on paper. For the time being, while the public health crisis persists, it is in the interests of public health – and in the interests of the health of Court staff as well as counsel, court runners, and any other individuals who may be required to file materials – that personal attendance at courthouses and filing queues be avoided. To that end, the Court is mandating that any material filed by counsel, in any civil or family proceeding, must be filed electronically, via email, per the directions set out in the December 11, 2020 Announcement from RCAS.

Effective immediately, Family Practice Note 9 – Intake, Resolution and Caseflow Management – Calgary and Red Deer – will remain in effect in Calgary only.

Resolution and Court Administration Services has added a new naming convention for Emergency Masters matters. For more information, please see the full announcement.

The Court of Queen’s Bench is extending the pilot project for the enforcement of the Mandatory Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules 8.4(3)(a) and 8.5(1)(a) until further notice.

With the implementation of Family Docket Court in Calgary and Edmonton, and in accordance with the new responsibilities assigned to Case Management Counsel (CMC) (now referred to as Resolution Counsel or RC), the Court is making a number of changes to the way it conducts case management.

Effective September 1, 2020 The Clerk of the Court will only accept filing by electronic mail (email), and will no longer accept filing by fax, as an authorized means under Alberta Rules of Court 13.41(2)(c) https://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/rules2010/Rules_vol_1.pdf .