On April 16, 2020, the Supreme Court of BC announced that the suspension of all regular court operations would be extended until May 29, 2020. This means that all trials, pre-trial conferences, applications, or any other hearings scheduled between March 19, 2020 and May 29, 2020 are automatically adjourned. Only matters that are considered essential and/or urgent by the court are to proceed as normal.

On April 21, 2020, in an effort to expand the number of civil and family matters that could be dealt with at this time, the court established procedures to allow parties to schedule telephone hearings for matters not considered essential or urgent.

How does this affect your case?

If you had a matter scheduled for hearing between March 19, 2020 and May 29, 2020, you, or the other party, can now apply to schedule that hearing by phone.

However, to qualify for a telephone hearing, your matter must meet the following criteria:

  1. The matter is limited to one disputed issue;
  2. The disputed issue is suitable to be addressed on the phone and will take less than one hour; and
  3. The disputed issue can be address with a single affidavit filed per party.

If your matter meets the above qualifications, the Supreme Court has set out a procedure that must be followed in order to schedule the hearing. That procedure can be found in the BC Supreme Court’s Notice, which can be found here.

More Questions

If you are unsure of how the new changes affect your claim or if you require assistance in preparing a claim, KZEL remains committed to navigating through your legal matters with you. We are continuing to work through these unique circumstances and are here to provide you with advice, support and representation. Please feel free to contact us.

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