Our firm attended the OBA Professional Development Dinner With Your Honourable Estates List Judges on April 5, 2017. The topic of the new practice advisory on video conferencing, and its intended use, was one of the topics that were discussed that evening.
This particular practice advisory is applicable only to 9:30 scheduling appointments on the Toronto Estates List and it was made in accordance with Rule 1.08 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. The new practice advisory is clear that, unless otherwise directed by the court, video conferencing is available in consent matters, unopposed matters, and scheduling matters. Parties or counsel who chose to appear by video conference must make their own arrangements and they may use CourtCall without prior Court approval. An appearance by CourtCall should be communicated to the Court in either the request or confirmation form filed for the appearance. As a matter of convenience, the Order, once issue and entered, will be sent to you by CourtCall.
For those who are interested, further details with respect to what CourtCall is and how it works are available on their website, https://courtcall.com.
Any other arrangements with alternative technologies for this purpose will require prior Court approval.
According to the Honourable Estates List Judges who were present during the Dinner, regardless of whether a matter is on consent or unopposed, video conference may still be less than ideal in situations where substantive relief is sought, such as an unopposed guardianship application.
For future OBA Trusts and Estates Law events like the Dinner, please check out the section group here.
Thanks for reading,