Proposal: Continue to backdate email filing - FamilyCounsel.ca - resources and tools for Family Law Lawyers

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Proposal: Continue to backdate email filing Court Procedure - Oct 8, 2022
Agree Disagree Skip 100% in favour out of 32 votes

Anonymous 2017

Edmonton Region, Alberta

A new announcement states that effective November 1st KB will no longer backdate filing, even when they reject or are slow to file.

It sounds like in several municipalities there isn't much faith that the Clerks will be able to file immediately by November 1st, or even the same day, and my understanding is that court runners are still being blocked.

If they're going to end backdating, they could at least wait until the Clerks have demonstrated the ability to keep up over a long enough period, or once court runners are permitted to file again, so that we can receive immediate feedback. Does anyone know how quickly they've been filing civil documents on the e-filing website?

If they're concerned with the number of rejections, perhaps they'd be better served by centralizing filing rules and imposing only necessary rules, rather than law by plethora of announcements and whim? How many well-being seminars and conferences do we need before the Court considers the undue stress that they're putting on lawyers and litigants?

5 18 months ago

Christina Wallace

Christina Wallace Law
Wetaskiwin, Alberta

Excellent points. This new announcement flies in the face of good sense. How much lead time will be needed so documents submitted will for sure be filed “on time.” In matters with short timelines must counsel now go to court in person?

The Court of Appeal e-filing system works smoothly and dependably. Until a comparable system is available for family law this change suddenly dumps all the risk in the lap of the lawyer.

2 18 months ago

Anonymous 2021

Calgary Region, Alberta

"Now that filing times have been significantly reduced...." Who are they kidding? I am still waiting weeks to get documents filed. I think this could be prejudicial to lawyers and their clients. Digital filing is not efficient as yet---why don't they admit it? there is a Family Town Hall...lawyers need to speak up or we will be lining up for fiats.

7 18 months ago

Anonymous 2017

Edmonton Region, Alberta

They should have a same-day filing option, then they can do whatever they want for email as far as I am concerned. Imagine if you are trying to send a sensitive letter and the postoffice told us "oh, we only postmark letters when they arrive, but lucky for you our times are getting quite good!"

If they wanted to charge a premium for runners to personally file or same-day, then fine. But do I really want to put the fate of a client's case into a clerks office? Do we really need cases that litigate whether a limitation date was met or not based on what happens in the backrooms? Is that beneficial for resources? I mean heaven help us if a couple clerks get sick again at the same time or electronic services go out.

4 18 months ago

Anonymous 2021

Other Region, Alberta

The most simple solution is to repeal the horrible directive that prevents us from filing in person. If we have to attend Chambers in person, there's no reason we can't resume filing in person.

E-filing is fine for some things (affidavits of service, desk applications) but for anything with a filing deadline, it's not appropriate, especially if they are going to follow in the footsteps of Land Titles and have the attitude that "we'll get to it when we get to it".

They can't keep downloading more and more of their clerical duties onto lawyers. I spend most of my time trying to navigate the quagmire of all their new policies and make sure there are no clerical issues in my filings rather than on actual lawyer work. It's beyond frustrating.

3 18 months ago

Anonymous 2021

Calgary Region, Alberta

The hint picked up today at Calgary Family Town Hall was if possible to make sure your FDC Endorsement speaks to "submitting and serving " dates not "filing" dates. At least that's what I chose to hear. . Apparently family filing will be joining the automated civil filing service soon....whatever it's called...Justice Digital Something.

2 18 months ago

Anonymous 2020

Calgary Region, Alberta

On a slightly positive note - I participated in a beta program of Digital Justice and the filing time on that was incredibly fast.

I am of the opinion that they should continue backdating until Digital Justice is up and running.

0 17 months ago

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