2022 has already seen a number of legislative updates directly relevant to wills and estates.  More changes that will impact our work but are not specific to our practice area are coming at the end of March 2022 by way of further amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure under Ontario Regulation 18/22.

The amendments primarily involve pre-trial procedure and service of expert reports, including the following key changes:

• Timing of Pre-Trial Conferences: Pre-trials will be scheduled to take place 30-120 days prior to the anticipated commencement of the trial unless the Court orders otherwise under new sub-rule 50.02(2.1).
• Pre-Trial Conference Reports: The party who files the trial record will be required to append the pre-trial conference report of the pre-trial judge, in addition to any orders made at the pre-trial under rule 50.07, as a result of the modification of sub-rule 48.03(2)(c).
• Certificate of Readiness for Trial: 30 days before the pre-trial conference, all parties will be required to file a certificate of readiness for trial in Form 50A (available here) under new rule 50.03.1.  If an expert report has been served late, an explanation must be provided whether the deadline has already been extended or not.
• Costs of Unproductive Pre-Trial Conferences: If the pre-trial judge finds that the pre-trial was unproductive as a result of a party’s conduct, that party may be required to pay costs immediately under new sub-rule 50.12(2).
• Timing for Service of Expert Reports: The deadline to serve and file expert reports is currently 90 days before pre-trial under subrule 53.03(1).  A supplementary report may be served and filed until 45 days (53.03(3)(b)), and a supplementary responding report 15 days (53.03(3)(c)), before the commencement of trial.  An expert witness may not typically speak to an issue not addressed in an expert report served within these timelines without leave of the Court.  As of March 31, 2022, new sub-rule 53.03(4)(c) will allow parties to consent to the late service and filing of an expert report where the timing of service does not affect the scheduled trial date(s).       

The Rules of Civil Procedure are being amended at least partly in response to concerns over timing and difficulty in moving litigation forward, especially in the context of the pandemic.  It will be interesting to see how these changes to the Rules may assist in the efficient preparation of matters, including wills and estates matters, for trial.

Thank you for reading,

Nick Esterbauer