Federal Courts Publish Invitation To Participate In 2024 Global Review Of Federal Courts Rules

On April 2, 2024, the Federal Court of Canada (FC) and the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) published an invitation to participate in a global review of the Federal Courts Rules (the Rules).

The invitation states that the 2024 Global Review Sub-Committee of the Federal Courts Rules Committee (the Sub-Committee) will conduct the global review.  The Sub-Committee has identified several areas for discussion surrounding proposed changes to the Rules, such as:

1. Modernizing the Rules to permit electronic service and filing of documents throughout (e.g., making electronic service the default, requiring parties to provide an email address with each document filed with the Court, etc.);
2. Removing references to anachronistic practices and technology (e.g., removing the option to serve, submit, or file documents by fax);
3. Incorporating important elements from the FCA’s Consolidated Practice Direction and the FC’s Amended Consolidated General Practice Guidelines;
4. Amending the Rules to reflect jurisprudential developments (e.g., whether the Rules should be amended to explicitly provide that trademark infringement proceedings may be brought by way of application);
5. Increasing the monetary limit for simplified actions;
6. Expanding the role of associate judges;
7. Granting a limited discretionary power to the registry to accept or refuse non-compliant documents;
8. Revising the Rules governing class actions; and
9. Miscellaneous amendments (e.g., timelines and procedural issues).

Additional areas of possible reform identified by the Sub-Committee include whether the Rules should be streamlined or simplified in any particular way, and whether there should be two sets of rules (one for each of the FC and FCA).

The Sub-Committee encourages comments and suggestions in response to its listed proposals and welcomes any other proposals regarding possible reforms to the Rules.  The review process is open to all interested parties. The consultation period runs from April 2, 2024 to July 2, 2024.

Summary By: Steffi Tran