Serving and Filing Criminal Court Documents

Information

Last updated: June 2, 2025

Issued December 1, 2022; last revised effective June 2, 2025

**This version of the Practice Direction will take effect on June 2, 2025.**

APPLICATION

  1. This practice direction applies to documents filed in connection with criminal proceedings in the Ontario Court of Justice.
  2. This practice direction does not apply to documents in relation to:
    1. applications for judicial authorizations, such as search warrants or production orders; and
    2. the laying of Informations or issuance of process.

SERVING AND FILING

Serving by email

  1. Documents for criminal proceedings may be served by email pursuant to rule 3.3(1) of the Criminal Rules of the Ontario Court of Justice.

Filing electronically by email

  1. Subject to the exceptions set out below, documents must be filed electronically by email, in accordance with the procedure set out in paragraph (7).

Exception – unrepresented or self-represented accused persons

  1. An unrepresented or self-represented accused person who is not able to file materials electronically may file paper copies at the courthouse where their case is being heard.

Exception – sensitive material and exceptional circumstances

  1. Where documents contain sensitive materials or where it is otherwise not feasible for counsel to file materials electronically due to exceptional circumstances, counsel may file paper copies (rather than electronic copies), unless the Court orders otherwise, and may request the materials be sealed by the court. Examples of sensitive materials include the following:
    1. materials related to child pornography (child sexual abuse and exploitation material);
    2. materials in relation to which the existence of privilege may be in issue including, but not limited to, confidential informant privilege, public interest privilege, solicitor client privilege, and litigation privilege;
    3. any other document that is sealed, or for which a sealing order may be issued.

Procedure for filing by Email

  1. The procedure for filing documents by email is as follows:
    1. Documents must be emailed to the specific courthouse where the matter is being heard. For a list of email addresses, see Ontario Court of Justice – Courthouse Email Addressesor select the courthouse using Courthouse location and information search tool. A judicial officer may direct that any documents be emailed to additional email addresses at the court location.
    2. To ensure the document is received and processed by the appropriate court office, the subject line should include the following information, unless otherwise specified in a Practice Direction or Notice issued by the Court:
      • LEVEL OF COURT (OCJ)
      • TYPE OF MATTER (Criminal)
      • ACCUSED PERSON’S NAME
      • TYPE OF DOCUMENT (e.g., Bring Forward Application, Application to Exclude Evidence at Trial)
    3. The body of the email must include the following information if applicable:
      • the Information file number (if known)
      • name and date of birth of the accused and charge(s)
      • details of next scheduled court appearance (date, courtroom and nature of appearance)
      • the name of the judicial officer seized with the matter, if applicable
      • nature of filing / request (e.g. s. 11(b) application, probation variation application)
      • list and description of documents attached (note: attachments cannot exceed 35MB)
      • confirmation of service, setting out when and how any other party was served.
      • name, role (i.e. lawyer, agent, Crown, defence, etc.,) and contact information of the person submitting the request (email and phone number).
  2. Delivery/receipt of a document by email is not confirmation that the document has been accepted by the Court for filing.
  3. When a document has been served and filed by email, and provided that the covering email includes confirmation of service (see para. 7(c) above) a formal affidavit of service is not required to be filed. However, the person filing the document must retain a copy of any relevant affidavit(s) of service and/or related documents (e.g., email confirmations) and be prepared to produce it to the Court on request.
  4. When a document has been filed electronically, it is not necessary to file a paper copy.

DOCUMENT STANDARDS

General

  1. Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, any document filed with the Court must comply with the standards set out in this practice direction.

General format

  1. Documents prepared by counsel or parties, such as an application, response, affidavit, summary of legal argument or factum, must:
    1. be in 12-point or larger font;
    2. be double spaced, except for quotations longer than four lines and footnotes;
    3. be divided into a single series of consecutively numbered paragraphs;
    4. have consecutive page numbers;
    5. include the Information number on the title/cover page, if known; and,
    6. be in pdf format.
  2. Any brief that contains multiple documents, such as an application record or book of authorities, must include a table of contents listing each document by tab and with internal hyperlinks or bookmarks. The cover page should include the Information number (if known) as well as the title of proceedings.

Applicant’s Application Record

  1. Where an applicant is relying on any evidentiary materials in addition to the application (Form 1) in support of their application, they must file an application record that contains the following:
    1. a table of contents describing each document, including each exhibit (whether included in an affidavit or not), with internal hyperlinks or bookmarks to the document;
    2. a copy of the application (Form 1);
    3. a copy of any affidavits and other material the applicant relies on for use on the application;
    4. a list of all relevant transcripts in chronological order, but not necessarily the transcripts themselves (which may be filed separately); and,
    5. a copy of any other material in the court file that is necessary for the hearing of the application.

Respondent’s Application Record

  1. Where a respondent is relying on any evidentiary materials in addition to the response (Form 2) and the materials included in the applicant’s application record, they must file a respondent’s application record that contains the following:
    1. a table of contents describing each document, including each exhibit (whether included in an affidavit or not), with internal hyperlinks or bookmarks to the document;
    2. a copy of the response (Form 2);
    3. a copy of any additional affidavits and other material the respondent relies on for use on the application that is not included in the applicant’s application record.

Factums or Summaries of Legal Argument

  1. Any factum or summary of legal argument filed by a party:
    1. must not exceed 20 pages, except with leave of the Court.
    2. should contain hyperlinks to any authorities (caselaw, texts, articles) referenced therein, as set out in the section below.

Case Law / Authorities

  1. References to authorities (case law, texts, articles) within materials should hyperlink to a publicly-available free website, such as judgment databases on the websites of Canadian courts, or CanLII (canlii.org/en/index.html). The hyperlink should be to the specific portion (paragraph or page) of the authority referenced.
  2. Where a party’s materials contain hyperlinks to all authorities on which they rely, a separate book of authorities is not required.
  3. Where a party is relying on authorities that are not hyperlinked in their materials, the party must file an abbreviated book of authorities containing the authorities that were not hyperlinked.
  4. Books of authorities must be in electronic (PDF) format and:
    1. include a table of contents with internal hyperlinks or bookmarks to the authorities contained within it;
    2. have the relevant portion(s) of authorities side-barred or highlighted;
    3. only include authorities referred to in written or oral argument; and
    4. not duplicate authorities already filed by any other party.

Transcripts

  1. Transcripts should be filed in electronic format wherever possible. Court transcripts must be certified by an authorized court transcriptionist.
  2. Transcripts may be included in an Application Record. However, where it is not feasible to do so, transcripts may be filed separately.

Affidavits

  1. Where it is not possible for counsel to commission an affidavit in person or by virtual means, unsworn / unaffirmed affidavits may be filed with the Court, but the affiant is expected to be available to be present at the hearing to swear or affirm the contents of the affidavit.

Electronic Signatures

  1. Where a document requires a signature, the document may be signed electronically in accordance with Rule 3.4 of the Criminal Rules of the Ontario Court of Justice.

Other types of documents

  1. Other documents filed with the Court, e.g. bail briefs, sentencing briefs, etc. should adhere, as closely as possible, to the standards set out in this practice direction.

Document naming standards

  1. Documents must have a standardized document name as follows:
    1. Accused last name and first name, in the format LASTNAME.FirstName
      • If there are multiple accused, add “et.al” after the accused name
    2. Document type (e.g., s.11b.Application)
    3. Party submitting the document (e.g., Crown or Defence), and
    4. Date on which the document was created or filed, in the format DD.MM.YYYY (e.g. 12.10.2022).

Note:

  • The document name must not include special characters, including hyphens, slashes, asterisks, or punctuation, e.g. – * / \ ? ! ” \ ‘ , (@ # $ ^ & ( ) + = { [ } ] : : < , >
  • The components of the document name must be separated by an underscore (“_”) rather than a hyphen.
  • Document names must not include firm-specific naming conventions, abbreviations, or file numbers.

For example, a document would be named as follows: SMITH.John_s.11b.Application_Defence_12.10.2022

Chief Justice Sharon M. Nicklas
Ontario Court of Justice

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