Alberta Court Rules Change November 1 2010
Time flies when you are having fun. For those of us in Alberta anticipating changes to court rules on November 1, 2010, time has flown quickly indeed.
I have written about the new Alberta Rules of court here and here and here, but just in case, I thought it worthwhile to touch on this topic one more time.
I have spent quite a bit of time lately helping with the final checks of my firm’s court precedents collection. Alberta’s Rules are significanly changing and so the form of documents that will be filed on and after November 1, 2010 also requires change. Thankfully, there are several internet delivered tools to assist practitioners with things like standard court forms.
The Alberta Queen’s Printer provides a rules on their site. Volume 1 of the Alberta Rules 2010 is a lovely hyperlink filled PDF document complete with information notes to help interpret the rules.
Those with ongoing litigation in Alberta should read Part 15:
Part 15: Transitional Provisions And Coming Into Force
What this Part is about: This Part describes what happens to legal proceedings that are going on when the new rules come into effect. The Part is intended to ensure a smooth transition from the former rules to these rules.
I’ve been attending some of the LESA training sessions on the new rules. I’m an articling student, and my civil procedure class was based on a draft of the new rules. I have also worked with people who were involved in the process of drafting them. If I had a nickle for every time that someone said “Don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger” or something similar, I’d be a couple of bucks richer.
From my point of view, they look like a marked improvement.
Shaunna, have you been able to convince the lawyers at your firm, to use the electronic versions instead of the print? Everyone wants print here!
I am not advocating for use of electronic versions of this TODAY for a couple of reasons. 1 – It is a learning time, some people learn by making notes or highlighting, some by reading. This is a huge document so I think for now, people need a paper copy. 2 – Change is better managed in small chunks, first we will learn the content, then we can advocate for use of the updated electronic version.
To qualify this, we had the majority of barristers using the online version of the old rules as their current copy. I chose to purchase the Rules Handbook for lawyers personal copies.
Barring the usual qualifier of “every oranigzation is different” I hope that helps.