Notice to the Profession and Parties – Expansion of Case Center Proceedings in Southwest Region

Effective:  October 31, 2022

This Notice to the Profession and Parties applies to proceedings in the Superior Court of Justice, Southwest Region. It deals only with the Expansion of and use, where required, of Case Center.

I. EXPANSION OF CASELINES

Beginning in June 2022 the Southwest Region began expanding the use of Case Center for all Superior Court of Justice events with some limited exceptions, such as Child Protection & Criminal Youth matters.  The Timeline for expansion is set out below:

    • June (Family) & July (Civil) 2022 – Windsor
    • September 2022 – Chatham, Sarnia & Woodstock
    • October 2022 – the remaining locations of London, London Family Court, St. Thomas & St. Thomas Family Court, Goderich, Sarnia & Windsor (Criminal)

Going forward, Case Center will be used for the following hearings:

  1. Civil
    • Pre-trials
    • Regular (Short) Motions or Applications
    • Long (Special Appointment) Motions or Applications
    • Trials
  2. Criminal (excluding Youth matters & matters involving Self-Represented Persons)
    • Judicial Pre-trials
    • Bail Reviews/Detention Reviews
    • Bail Hearings
    • Pre-trial Motions/Applications
    • Summary Conviction Appeals
    • Trials
  3. Family (non-Child Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 matters
    • Case, Settlement, Trial Scheduling & Trial Management Conferences
    • Regular (Short) Motions
    • Long (Special Appointment) Motions
    • Trials
  4. Divisional Court
    • Motions before a single judge
    • Small Claims Court Appeals
    • All matters to be heard by a panel

II. UPLOADING TO CASELINES

Counsel and parties are reminded of the following:

    • The use of Case Center for the events described above is mandatory.
    • NO document is to be uploaded to Case Center until it has been properly accepted for filing and adheres to all requirements associated with each respective event.
    • DO NOT upload any Sealed Document (or document for which a sealing order is sought), any matter related to Child Pornography, a confidential informant, a privileged document (or a document where privilege is being asserted) or any other document counsel have concerns uploading, until judicial direction is given.
    • For Criminal matters, counsel MAY NOT INVITE THEIR CLIENTS TO USE CASELINES.
    • All documents must be uploaded into the applicable event bundle in Case Center. Case law and other legal authorities referred to in a factum must be hyperlinked.  Failure to do so may result in the matter not proceeding as scheduled.

For more comprehensive information, please click on the link applicable to your matter below:

  1. Civil – this is a link to the Notice to the Profession, Parties, Public and the Media, effective August 2, 2022. Once within it, please refer to Part I, 4 (Uploading materials for Court: Case Center).
  2. Criminal – this is a link to the Southwest Region – Notice to the Profession Regarding Case Center in Criminal Matters – June 17, 2021.
  3. . Family – this is a link to the Notice to the Profession, Parties, Public and the Media, effective August 2, 2022. Once within it, please refer to Part I, 4 (Uploading materials for Court: Case Center).
  4. Divisional Court – this is a link to the Notice to Profession – Divisional Court – April 19, 2022; amended October 17, 2022.  Once within it, please refer to D.4 Submitting Electronic Documents for Hearings.

III. RELEASE OF ORDERS & ENDORSEMENTS (Family, Civil &     Criminal)

      • Where an event is heard using Case Center, court staff may release orders and endorsements to the parties by uploading them to Case Center instead of sending them by e-mail, subject to any direction from the presiding judicial official. You can locate these documents by accessing the Orders and Endorsements sub-bundle in Case Center.
      • Case Center will automatically alert parties to changes that occur in a bundle, for instance if a party uploads material or if the court uploads an order or endorsement following the event. These notifications are sent from casecenter-noreply@thomsonreuters.comto the email address of all parties with access to the bundle. Staff provide this notification feature to parties when they are first invited into the case file. Please be sure to save casecenter-noreply@thomsonreuters.com as a safe sender in your email settings.

IV. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CASELINES, including how to upload documents to Case Center and tips for using it, see:

Help with Case Center:

Members of the public can call or email the Ministry’s Contact Centre for assistance with Case Center:  JSO Contact Centre information:  Telephone: 1-800-980-4962 Email: info.Case Center@ontario.ca (Case Center)

 

Bruce G. Thomas

Regional Senior Justice

Superior Court of Justice

Southwest Region