What's New

Welcome to the “What's New?” section of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador  Trial Division (General) website. This section will include information bulletins, links to news releases, event notices, new publications, speeches, photos and other items.

Judicial Centre of Grand Bank Pilots Telephonic Court Appearances with CourtCall Effective March 2012

Voluntary telephonic appearances may be made in certain matters before this Court, including:

  1. All short causes and motions, including interim/interlocutory applications, status updates and the like.
  2. Case Management Meetings.
  3. Pre-trial conferences.
  4. Other matters as counsel and the Court agree on.

Counsel may make a CourtCall Appearance as follows:

  1. NOT LESS THAN THREE (3) COURT DAYS BEFORE THE HEARING DATE, serve and file with CourtCall (not the Court) a Request for CourtCall Telephonic Appearance (available from CourtCall):
  2. Pay a fee of $49.00 US/$55.00 CAN to CourtCall, LLC.

A confirmation from CourtCall, LLC, will be emailed or faxed to your office upon the filing and payment outlined above.

A CourtCall Appearance is made as part of a Court’s usual calendar. Unless notified to the contrary, all counsel who have filed on a timely basis their Request and have paid the fee may appear by dialing the toll-free teleconference number provided by CourtCall, LLC. A pre-hearing check-in will occur five minutes before the scheduled hearing time. CourtCall Appearances will generally be afforded a calendar preference.

A CourtCall Appearance is voluntary and may be made without consent of the other party or advance consent of the Court. The Court, however, reserves the discretion to require personal appearance.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT COURTCALL AT 888-882-6878 – DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT

Ex Parte Applications in Family Proceedings

In order to provide some guidance to litigants and their counsel, a new Practice Note relating to applications has been published and was recently uploaded to the Practice Notes section of the court’s website. This new Practice Note applies to all ex parte applications in family proceedings except applications for warrants under the Children and Youth Care and Protection Act. Both the issuance and disposition of such applications are addressed in the Practice Note. If you have any questions or comments, contact the Legal Officer of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Trial Division, Angela Whitehead at (709) 729-4743 or angelawhitehead@supreme.court.nl.ca

Practice Note on Quebec Notarial Wills

A new Practice Note was published in the Gazette in accordance with Rule 4.04 on August 19, 2011 and can be found on the Practice Notes section of this website. It outlines the appropriate procedure to follow when property has been distributed in Quebec pursuant to a Quebec notarial will and now the executor seeks to distribute property in Newfoundland and Labrador. Comments and questions on this Practice Note should be directed to Angela Whitehead, Legal Officer of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, at (709) 729-4743 or angelawhitehead@supreme.court.nl.ca.

New Scale of Costs in Effect July 1, 2011

A new Scale of Costs was passed by regulation in May 2011. It applies to all matters in the Supreme Court, Trial Division in which an order is made on or after July 1, 2011 for party and party costs to be taxed. This new Scale of Costs replaces the old one and aims to make the issue of costs simpler and more predictable. If you have any questions or comments relating to the new Scale of Costs, please contact the Legal Officer of the Trial Division, Angela Whitehead, at (709) 729-4743 or angelawhitehead@supreme.court.nl.ca.

Changes to Rules 37A, 39 and 40

The Rules Committee of the Trial Division passed amendments to Rules 37A, 39 and 40 which will come into force on January 11, 2011. They were published in the Gazette as Regulation 111/10 on December 17, 2010. A Notice to the Bar containing a summary of the substantive changes along with Tables of Concordance can be found in the Practice Notes section. Any comments on these amendments should be directed to Angela Whitehead, Legal Officer of the Trial Division, at (709) 729-4743 or angelawhitehead@supreme.court.nl.ca.

Criminal Proceedings Guidelines and Forms Now in Force

Further to the Practice Note issued by the Chief Justice and the Registrar, the Criminal Proceedings Guidelines and Forms are now in force in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Trial Division. A Word and PDF copy of the both the guidelines and the forms are available in the Practice Notes section. The forms are also available in PDF writable format under the Forms section of this website. Any comments on these new guidelines and forms should be directed to Angela Whitehead, Legal Officer of the Trial Division, at (709) 729-4743 or angelawhitehead@supreme.court.nl.ca.

The Honourable Deborah J. Paquette, Q.C., appointed judge of the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador

The Honourable Deborah J. Paquette, Q.C., Assistant Deputy Minister with the Department of Justice of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, is appointed judge of the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador to replace Madam Justice L.R. Hoegg, who was appointed to the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador effective June 18, 2010. The swearing-in ceremony will take place on September 14, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom No. 1, Courthouse, St. John’s, NL.

 

Official opening of the Corner Brook Law Courts