News & Announcements

The Alberta Courts are piloting a system for completing Gladue Report Request forms through an online portal. Les tribunaux de l’Alberta lancent un projet pilote constitué d’un processus permettant de faire une demande en ligne de rapport Gladue.

Effective May 24, 2022, social distancing requirements and related capacity limits due to COVID 19 will be rescinded in some courtrooms in Alberta as noted below. While social distancing in those courtrooms will no longer be required, it is, nevertheless, still encouraged. We stress that social distancing and capacity limits remain in effect in all Provincial Court courtrooms until further notice. All restrictions in relation to masking, vaccination policies and the current use of Plexiglass remain in effect until further notice.

Effective May 19, 2022, individuals who have received a summons to attend for jury selection at the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta will no longer be required to produce an Alberta-issued COVID-19 vaccine record.

Effective June 15, 2022, Alberta lawyers will be able to file applications for certain types of grants in surrogate matters using the online Surrogate Digital Service (SDS). An instruction page for the use of SDS, including a list of key dates for counsel, is now available, here: https://surrogate.alberta.ca/.

The Court of Appeal of Alberta, Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, and Provincial Court of Alberta, have released a new Court Information Access Guide for Alberta. The CIAGA replaces the former Alberta Courts Public and Media Access Guide and applies to all proceedings in the Alberta courts. Lawyers, members of the public, and media wanting to access court information should familiarize themselves with the new CIAGA.

Effective May 2, 2022, the restrictions on access to courthouses set out in the Alberta Courts’ Notice to the Public and Legal Profession of March 26, 2020, will be lifted. Access to Alberta courthouses will no longer be restricted to the categories of individuals set out in that Notice. All other COVID-19 measures currently in place, including the use of Plexiglas barriers, mandatory masking, courtroom capacity limits, physical distancing, and vaccination policies will remain in effect until further notice.

Effective June 15, 2022, applications for most grants typically issued in connection with surrogate matters will require completion of new Grant Application (GA) forms. Members of the Law Society of Alberta will also be permitted to apply for certain types of grants using an electronic system called the Surrogate Digital Service. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

Effective immediately, and until further notice, jury selections in Calgary will return to the Calgary Courts Centre. Social distancing, masking and all other current pandemic-related measures will continue to be observed.

UPDATED Announcement : A designated naming convention must be followed for all emails sent to the Court of Queen’s Bench which contain documents for filing. If the naming convention as outlined is not followed, your documents will be sent back to you unfiled, advising you did not use the proper naming convention for the covering email. For full filing details, including specific naming conventions and examples, please refer to the full announcement.

Court of Queen’s Bench Administration has extended the cap on email, digital and fax filing fees until May 31, 2022. In addition to regular filing fees, documents that are filed digitally, by email or by fax will be charged at the rate of $1 per page, capped to a maximum of $20.