In recent months, an Ontario Superior Court of Justice province-wide Notice to the Profession has permitted the filing of applications for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will or a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee Without a Will (“probate applications”) by email.  Since then, the Rules of Civil Procedure were updated, effective January 1, 2021 to permit for the service of most court materials by email (among other updates).

Most recently, as of January 8, 2021, the Rules of Civil Procedure were further updated to provide for the options of serving notice of probate applications by email, courier, or personal service.  Amended sub-rules 74.04(7) and 74.05(5) now read as follows:

Notice under this rule shall be served on all persons, including charities, the Children’s Lawyer and the Public Guardian and Trustee, and, unless the court specifies another method of service, may be served by,

(a) personal service;

(b) e-mail, to the last e-mail address for service provided by the person or, if no such e-mail address has been provided, to the person’s last known e-mail address; or

(c) mail or courier, to the person’s last known address.

Previously, the Rules of Civil Procedure required the Notice of Application in respect of a probate application to be served by regular lettermail.

Forms 74.06 and 74.16 (Affidavits of Service in respect of probate applications) have also now been updated to refer to these new manners of service of the Notice of Application in respect of a probate application.  The revised forms are available here.

This further development in the modernization of estates law procedures is welcome and can be expected to better enable lawyers to assist clients in serving and filing probate applications more efficiently while working remotely during the pandemic and beyond.

Thank you for reading.

Nick Esterbauer