B.C. Supreme Court ends telephone hearing process for some civil and family matters

Law360 Canada (July 13, 2020, 12:01 PM EDT) -- On July 7 the B.C. Supreme Court announced that, effective July 13, all Supreme Court registries will be open for in-person services. The court also announced that the request for urgent hearing process will be discontinued, and the processes for making an application by written submissions and for making a chambers application by telephone will be modified.

This revised notice states that the telephone conference hearing process, which was established for civil and family matters that had been scheduled to be heard between March 19 and May 29, were not urgent or essential, and met certain other criteria, will be discontinued as of July 13. The court will continue to hear other matters by telephone, including judicial case conferences, chambers applications, trial management conferences, case planning conferences and registrar’s hearings.

In addition, parties may also book case planning conferences (CPCs) in accordance with the process set out in the Supreme Court Civil Rules, as modified in this notice, as of July 13. Unless the court otherwise orders, all CPCs will proceed by telephone until further notice.