Legalviews Personal

What were the best ways to prepare written materials for an application are set out in my Systematic Advocacy book. But recent problems in the Alberta courts add to the topic. Now things take longer, there can be small puzzles, getting answers or correcting little errors is harder, and deadlines are more dangerous. (See my blog dated March 30, 2023, and the upcoming September 2023 issue of the Stevenson & Côté Handbook.)

So here are a few more tips to make the process go better and avoid disasters.

1. Early in the life of a file, warn your client in writing about

(a) deadlines,
(b) how long it will take to do the work to meet the deadlines,
(c) the bad effects of missing a deadline, and
(d) how many weeks before certain events you would need instructions, in order to take effective action in court.

2. You will have to carry out several tasks simultaneously. So a team approach and some delegation is very often desirable. If your office has someone very good with detail, paperwork, and organization, try to get some help from that person. Sometimes solicitors have more such skills than do barristers. Often only one (or part of one) task requires a detailed knowledge of the issues. Someone should prepare a folder or binder or electronic document giving the relevant sections of statutes, Rules of Court, Practice Directions, court website Announcements, and notes of unpublished changes, for the procedure for a certain general class of applications. Some of the types of work to be done may be fairly mechanical, having to do with timing, logistics, and the latest procedures (or backlogs), rather than with the merits.

3. Project management skills are very useful. Above all, you must not wait to start what you think is step 4, until after steps 1, 2, and 3 are completed. Any task which has no preconditions, or whose preconditions are now met, should be started at once. Try to detect more or less what is one path, i.e. a string of steps, each of which is a precondition to the next step, so that a delay in one delays all later steps in that long string. For example, do not wait until the end of the process to produce formal covers or end sheets for documents, whether these are electronic or paper (or both). You know their contents at the outset, so prepare them at the outset. When you identify strings of steps, try to see which string is the critical one. In other words, which string will take longer (even if all goes well) than the other strings take.

4. If no one in your office has prepared a court application in the last 60 days, someone should now become acquainted with all the actual on-the-ground processes and practicalities (and maybe shortcuts). Learn all that even before the client has definitely approved bringing an application or decided just what it will complain about or ask for.

5. List all your people and your client's people who may have to approve things, authorize things, provide evidence, or swear oaths. Then ensure that all of them will be available all through the process. Make sure none is likely to go on holiday or a voyage. Get now from each of those people every possible location, email address, cell-phone number, etc. which might be used (permanently or temporarily) to reach them. Learn reliably whether it will be possible to exchange documents, including pdf form or fax.

6. Try to learn how to contact someone in the court administration who can give you advice or help if you have a query or if something goes wrong. Someone who could look at a draft of a document and say early if it has problems of form, would be valuable. If you cannot find someone in the court administration, find a lawyer in another firm who files such documents frequently and knows what and when the courts will accept. It cannot cost that big a fee for advice on logistics or form.

– Hon. J.E. Côté

PREPARING APPLICATIONS IN UNCERTAIN CONDITIONS