On June 17, 2021, a series of amendments to the Federal Courts Rules (the Amended Rules), were registered and came into force. On July 7, 2021, the Amended Rules were officially published in the Canada Gazette Part II.
Key Changes and Additions:
The Amended Rules include the following key changes and additions:
- The monetary relief limit for actions brought under the simplified procedure and heard before a prothonotary has been raised from $50,000 to $100,000.
- The deadline for delivery of a statement of defence is now 30 days from service of the statement of claim for defendants in Canada and the United States—it used to be 40 days for U.S. defendants. Statements of defence for defendants outside of Canada and the United States continues to be 60 days.
- Defendants are also given a new option to deliver a notice of intention to respond, which will grant them a 10-day extension to the deadline for delivering their statements of defence. Delivering a notice of intention to respond does not mean that a defendant has conceded that the Federal Courts have jurisdiction.
- Books of authorities filed in the Federal Court (FC) or in the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) are now to only contain the relevant excerpts of reasons for judgment where these reasons are freely available online. Decisions not freely available online are to be included in full with relevant extracts marked.
- Joint books of authorities on appeals are now to be filed with the FCA within the time for delivering a requisition for a hearing. If parties file individual books of authorities, these books are not to reproduce documents present in the book of another party.
- The use of condensed appeal books/compendia containing extracts from the appeal books and the joint books of authorities during a hearing has been codified.
- The existing practice of keeping documents filed in relation to criminal proceedings under the Competition Act confidential has been codified.
