Judgments Preparation and Distribution - A collective success - JTAC - CTC 2009

Judges Technology Advisory Committee Canadian Judicial Council

The new digital environment

Access to justice

Ensure that decisions found on court sites can be cited

Prevents the capture of the case law by private organisations at the moment when legal research moves from books to database systems

APPEAL from a judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal (MacPherson and Cronk JJ.A. and Glithero R.S.J. ( ad hoc )), 2008 ONCA 466, 237 O.A.C. 324, 173 C.R.R. (2d) 209, [2008] O.J. No. 2316 (QL), 2008 CarswellOnt 3457, setting aside the stay of proceedings ordered by Gordon J., 2007 CarswellOnt 5364 . Appeal allowed.

1 2 3 4 Example (fictitious) In the Court of Appeal of Alberta Citation: R v. Martin, 2006 ABCA 39 Date: 20060921 Docket: 0704-0185-A Registry : Edmonton Between: Daniel Martin, Appellant – and – Her Majesty the Queen, Respondent [Official English translation] Restriction on publication: By court order made under subsection 486.4(1) of the Criminal Code, information that may identify the person described in this judgment as the complainant may not be published, broadcast, or transmitted in any manner. Corrected Judgment: The text of the judgment has been corrected according to the appended corrigendum (released November 29, 2006). Before: Mr. Justice James Ward. On appeal from: An interim decision from the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta dated April 9, 2005 (R. v. Martin, 2004 ABQB 231, docket T102665).

Avoid manual formatting

Endorsement and not E N D O R S E M E N T

Tables: illustration

Enter dates as text

Footnotes or endnotes

Use the proper tool

Even better, cite authorities in the text

Citation to case law

Smith v. Jones, 2006 NBQB 435 , 87 D.L.R. (4 th ) 334, [2006] N.B.J. No. 198 (QL)

Citation to a legislative provision

Subsection 3(2) of the Hazardous Products Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. H-3 (as amended to S.C. 2004, c. 9, s. 1)

Distribution of decisions should be governed by court-wide policies

Designation of a central distribution office

Decision release procedures

Should address issues such as

Circulation of decisions from the judge’s chamber to a central distribution office

Distribution of oral, interlocutory or procedural decisions and endorsements

Treatment of privacy-sensitive matters such as family and child protection

Communication of restrictions on publication

Redaction and anonymization policies

Corrections to distributed decisions

It is best practice to designate a central distribution office for the distribution of decisions

To apply policies and implement procedures

To streamline the preparation of decisions for publication

The contact information for the central distribution office should be published on the court website

Should address issues such as

Assignment of a neutral citation

Application of policies defining which decisions are distributed

Application of policies regarding compliance with publication bans and redaction of decisions

Procedures to deal with hidden information in decisions files

Model practice direction recommended by the CJC

Practice Direction Re: Use of Neutral Citation for Case Law The purpose of this practice direction is to ensure that counsel provide the neutral citation to any case law cited in court submissions. Since its establishment in 1999, Canadian courts have progressively implemented the neutral citation for case law. When a court assigns a neutral citation, the reference is conspicuously located near the top of the decision. It looks like this: Smith v. Jones, 2006 NBQB 435, the last part (“2006 NBQB 435”) being the essential element that allows easy access to the decision. The Neutral Citation was implemented for decisions of this court on [date]. The citation is assigned by the court prior to the release of a decision so that counsel and litigants can cite and retrieve decisions without having to rely on a citation that is specific to a case law reporter service or a specific database system. Effective [date], counsels are directed to use the neutral citation where available to refer to case law in their submissions to this court. Where counsel choose to use parallel citations from reporter series or electronic databases, the neutral citation shall be the first used, as in the following example: Smith v. Jones, 2006 NBQB 435, 87 D.L.R. (4 th ) 334, [2006] N.B.J. No. 198 (QL).