You’ve received an email from Case Center advising you to upload documents for your upcoming hearing into Case Center. What now? Below are tips to help you work with Case Center.
Need more information? View a Case Center tutorial here: Welcome to Case Center. For technical instructions, login to Case Center and click “Support” or see FAQs.
- Pre-Hearing Uploading and Preparation
- Tip 1 – Register and bookmark Case Center (Ontario)
- Tip 2 – File first, upload second
- Tip 3 – Invite other lawyers and legal assistants
- Tip 4 – Name and number your documents
- Tip 5 – Upload documents individually to the appropriate event bundle if they do not contain hyperlinks to other documents
- Tip 6 – Upload your documents in a single PDF to keep your internal hyperlinks
- Tip 7 – Create an index of key documents listing Case Center-generated document and page numbers
- Hearing Tips
- Tip 8 – View a list of upcoming events and access video conference links
- Tip 9 – Navigate bundles
- Tip 10 – Refer the judicial official to a specific page of a document
- Tip 11 – Use presenter mode to assist in your presentation during the hearing
- Tip 12 – Return to the last-viewed page of a document previously opened
- Tip 13 – View more than one Case Center document on your screen
- Tip 14 – Highlight or make notes on your documents using the Notes function
- Tip 15 – Upload your recent endorsements and orders
- Tip 16 – Use of Draft Orders Uploaded to Case Center
- Tip 17 – Who do I contact if the Case Center platform is not working properly?
- Support
Pre-Hearing Uploading and Preparation
Tip 1 – Register and bookmark Case Center (Ontario)
If you haven’t done so already, the first step will be to register as a Case Center user and bookmark the Case Center (Ontario) website. Click on the link in the email directing you to Case Center and fill in the required information on the registration page. You can also register in advance by visiting: https://ontariocourts.casecenter.thomsonreuters.com/ and clicking on “Register” at the top right corner. You may also want to bookmark this website so that you return to the Ontario version of Case Center and not another jurisdiction.
Tip 2 – File first, upload second
After you have filed your documents with the court, through Justice Submissions Online or another approved means, and those filings have been accepted by the court, upload your documents into Case Center. This should be done at least 5 days prior to your court date (or later IF permitted by the applicable rules). Criminal documents for pre-trial motions in Toronto are to be uploaded the Thursday prior to the week the motion is set to be argued.
Important – Uploading to Case Center is mandatory so that the judicial official has access to your material when preparing for the event. Material that is not uploaded into Case Center will likely not be reviewed in advance.
Tip 3 – Invite other lawyers and legal assistants
Lawyers can provide other professionals access to their cases in Case Center. You can do so by locating the case (found on your View Case List screen) and selecting Update Case. Next, click on the People tab found in the case file and then on Invite New Participant. Enter the participant’s email address and select the bundles you would like to provide them access to (e.g. the event and Orders and Endorsements bundles). Once you click Invite, an automated Case Center email will be sent to the person containing a link to the case.
View a short how-to video here.
If you are a self-represented litigant and would like to grant another person access to your Case Center file, you will need to ask the court to grant the access.
Tip 4 – Name and number your documents
To upload into Case Center, you must save your document using the following file naming protocol:
- Document type (including the form number in family cases),
- Type of party submitting the document,
- Name of the party submitting the document (including initials if the name is not unique to the case), and
- Date on which the document was created or signed, in the format DD-MMM-YYYY (e.g. 12-JAN-2021).
Document names that do not follow this protocol will not upload correctly or be accepted.
You can control the order in which your documents appear, therefore please add a number at the beginning of the document name (i.e. 1. Factum – Respondent Smith – 01-JAN-2021). If you upload a new document later (e.g. during the hearing), you will want to add it at the end of your list so that it does not change the order and page numbers that have been allocated to documents that have already been uploaded. If your documents are not appearing numerically, please contact staff so that they can change the settings in your file.
Below is an example of how a respondent in an appeal may name their documents in Case Center:
- Factum – Respondent Smith – 01-JAN-2021
- Responding Record — Respondent Smith – 01-JAN-2021
- Oral Argument Compendium – Respondent Smith – 01-JAN-2021
- Transcript Brief – Respondent Smith – 01-JAN-2021
- Exhibit Book – Respondent Smith – 01-JAN-2021
- Financial Statement 13.1 – Applicant Smith – 01-JAN-2021
Tip 5 – Upload documents individually to the appropriate event bundle if they do not contain hyperlinks to other documents
After accessing your case in Case Center, you will see a list of event bundles (subfolders) in your case. Before each event, staff will label and provide you with access to the bundle for the event. For example, if a settlement conference has been scheduled, staff will provide you with access to the settlement conference bundle. You would also have access to previous event bundles as well as the settlement conference bundles. Upload your documents into the correct event bundle. This makes it easy for the judicial official to review the right documents before the upcoming event.
To upload documents, click on the “Sections” tab in the case file, find your designated section and select “Upload Documents”.
Generally speaking, each document should be uploaded to Case Center separately, in the appropriate Section tab and using the naming protocol outlined in Tip 4. This is to ensure that each document will be organized in the table of contents found on the left-hand of the “Review” screen and can be loaded easily by the system during your hearing.
There are three exceptions to this rule:
- Affidavits with attached exhibits;
- Books of authorities; and
- Documents that are hyperlinked to other documents.
Affidavits with attached exhibits should be uploaded in one PDF document with hyperlinks from the affidavit to the exhibits for ease of reference. Similarly, where a Book of Authorities is provided to the court, it should be uploaded as a single PDF document with a table of contents hyperlinked to the cases contained within it. This will assist the judicial official in easily locating the exhibits and/or caselaw. A party’s factum can also be linked to caselaw in publicly available on-line sources such as CanLii, where available.
When uploading a document to Case Center, ensure the document is under 500 pages in length. This will allow you to avoid issues with your document freezing while scrolling during your hearing. As such, if a document such as a book of authorities is longer than 500 pages, it should be broken down into Book of Authorities Vol. 1, Book of Authorities Vol. 2, etc. to remain under the maximum number of pages.
Please see Tip 6 for instructions on how to upload documents to Case Center that are hyperlinked to other documents that will also be uploaded.
Tip 6 – Upload your documents in a single PDF to keep your internal hyperlinks
Previously, only hyperlinks to external websites remained active in court documents once they were uploaded into Case Center. Internal hyperlinks pointing to locations within a document (such as a table of contents with hyperlinks to each section within the document) were deactivated upon being uploaded. This issue has now been resolved.
Case Center will retain internal hyperlinks within a document provided those hyperlinks link to a place within the same document. Sometimes it is preferable to upload documents together in one large PDF to retain internal hyperlinks, but this can make it difficult for the judicial official to locate the documents in Case Center. In order to upload all documents in one PDF to retain internal hyperlinks, and also display the names of each document contained within it for ease of reference, create a “first-level bookmark” for each document within the PDF using the naming convention set out in Tip 4.
Next, upload your PDF into Case Center by clicking on the “Sections” tab in the case file, finding your designated section and selecting “Upload Documents”. On the Upload Documents page, select the “Upload Bookmarked PDF” checkbox. Selecting “Upload Bookmarked PDF” will prompt Case Center to detect the first-level bookmarks and split them into separate documents. These newly separated documents will be organized numerically in the table of contents found on the Review Screen. The hyperlinks within these documents will remain intact.
For example, when uploading a motion record with internal hyperlinks, create a first-level bookmark for each document contained within the motion record so they will be displayed in the Case Center list of documents on the left-hand of the “Review” screen. Following these steps will ensure that your documents are organized and easily accessible for your hearing.
Please note that the Bookmarked PDF function should not be used for affidavits with exhibits and Books of Authorities, as they should not be split into separate documents. Please refer to Tip 5 for more information on affidavits with exhibits and Books of Authorities.
Tip 7 – Create an index of key documents listing Case Center-generated document and page numbers
After uploading your documents into Case Center, you may want to create a document containing an index of the documents that you will be relying on at the hearing along with the Case Center-generated document and page numbers (e.g. A13). If you upload this document onto Case Center in advance of the hearing, the judicial official can refer to it when preparing for the event.
Hearing Tips
Tip 8 – View a list of upcoming events and access video conference links
You can see your upcoming events in Case Center by clicking “View Hearings” at the top of the screen. This page provides a list of your upcoming hearings and will include the Zoom coordinates for virtual hearings.
If you want to share the Zoom coordinates with your client, click on the Video Conference Link button in the case on Case Center, copy and paste the link into your communication with your client.
As a best practice, staff will provide you with access to your event hearing bundle (i.e. Motion) and an Orders and Endorsements bundle. You will receive access to more bundles if other events are scheduled and created through Case Center.
You can navigate through your bundles on the Review screen by selecting the drop down feature located on the top left-hand corner of the screen.
Tip 10 – Refer the judicial official to a specific page of a document
If you or the other party provide the judicial official with the Case Center-generated document and page number (e.g. B17), you can type it into the Find Page Number field under the “Find” tab at the top of the screen and all participants will be taken directly to the correct page. Another way to direct a judicial official to a specific page of a document is to open the document in Case Center, click on “Find” at the top of the screen, and then click on “Direct Others to Page”. This will send a message to all other parties that they can click to be taken to the same page.
Tip 11 – Use presenter mode to assist in your presentation during the hearing
You can use presenter mode to assist other participants in following your presentation during the hearing. This allows you to display specific pages and areas of a document on Case Center for all participants.
To use this feature, click on the Present Tab and click Start Presentation to allow you to become the presenter. A red border will appear around the review pane, indicating that you are in presenter mode. Ask other delegates to click on the Present tab and then click Follow Presenter and choose your name. You will be able to see who’s following you by the list of names displayed at the top of the screen.
Tip 12 – Return to the last-viewed page of a document previously opened
If you want have been moving between documents in Case Center and want to return to the last-viewed page, click on “Find” at the top of the screen to make additional feature buttons appear, and then click on “Show the Previous Page”.
Tip 13 – View more than one Case Center document on your screen
You can open multiple documents in Case Center by clicking “View” at the top of the screen to make additional feature buttons appear, and then clicking on “Open in New Tab”. This will open another tab in your browser that will allow you to view the documents. You can also open two documents side by side on Case Center by clicking on the Dual Panes Icon in the top right corner of your reading window (i.e. small overlapping rectangles). This will open a second reading pane so that you can read two documents side by side.
Tip 14 – Highlight or make notes on your documents using the Notes function
You can highlight or make notes on your documents in Case Center using the Notes function. These functions are discussed in the Case Center guide regarding Notes. To access the guide, login to Case Center and then visit the following website: https://caselines.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/2000024313-15-notes. A complete list of Case Center guides is accessible at the following website: https://caselines.freshservice.com/support/solutions/folders/2000062769.
Tip 15 – Upload your recent endorsements and orders
Your case will have an orders/endorsements bundle. Parties are asked to upload copies of orders and endorsements into this sub-bundle if they have not already been uploaded so that they can be accessed for upcoming events. This should include any order that remains in effect as well as any relevant endorsements, including endorsements that were made before electronic files were available to the Court.
Please remember to save the document descriptively, in accordance with the protocol (i.e. instead of Order, save as Order of Stevenson J., 1-FEB-2021).
Tip 16 – Use of Draft Orders Uploaded to Case Center
Judicial officials can download and amend draft orders or other documents to help prepare their orders. You may therefore want to include draft orders with your materials.
Tip 17 – Who do I contact if the Case Center platform is not working properly?
If you need support to resolve technical issues, please call 1-800-290-9378 and select either “Case Center” or “Evidence Sharing” when you reach the directory, or email westlaw.softwaresupport@tr.com. Technical support provided by Thomson Reuters is available from 8 AM to 5 PM (Monday – Friday) Eastern Time Zone.
Demonstration and Training Recordings
View a comprehensive Case Center tutorial here: Welcome to Case Center (18 minutes)
Case Center Information Session – Toronto Family (1 hour)
Case Center Information Session – Toronto Criminal (1 hour)
Case Center Questions Period – Toronto Criminal (1 hour)
Case Center Information Session – East and Northwest Regions Civil (1 hour)
Case Center Information Session – East and Northwest Regions Family (1 hour)
Case Center Information Session – East and Northwest Regions Criminal (1 hour)
Case Center Information Session – Central East and Central South Regions Civil (1 hour)
Case Center Information Session – Central East and Central South Regions Family (1 hour)
Case Center Information Session – Central East and Central South Regions Criminal (1 hour)
Support
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) resource for Case Center is available online at: https://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/notices-and-orders-covid-19/supplementary-notice-september-2-2020/faq-caselines/.
For assistance with technical issues, please contact Thomson Reuters technical support at 1-800-290-9378 and select either “Case Center” or “Evidence Sharing” when you reach the directory, or email westlaw.softwaresupport@tr.com. Support is available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Monday to Friday).
The Ministry of the Attorney General’s Court Services Division is now offering a technology support hotline as additional help for self-represented litigants. The hotline directs self-represented litigants to a directory of support options. Case Center is option 4 on the menu. Self-represented litigants will be able to call the hotline at 1-800-980-4962.