“The purpose of this Practice Direction is to further the goal of providing timely and meaningful judicial intervention and assistance to families engaged in family disputes. It is to encourage the expeditious scheduling of a triage conference in family proceedings as is required by the Family Case Flow Scheduling Model.
Parties involved in a family proceeding are entitled to participate in a triage conference which provides the opportunity to resolve contentious matters in a timely manner. Timely access to early and meaningful judicial intervention is a cornerstone of the Family Case Flow Scheduling Model. To the extent that timely access is now being compromised by an increasing number of adjournments related to the Triage Screening List, this issue must be addressed.
Triage Screening List Adjournments
King’s Bench Rule (KBR) 70.24(16) requires a party seeking a triage conference to file and serve a Request for Triage Conference (Form 70D.2), a Certificate of Prerequisite Completion (Form 70D.3) and a triage brief on the other party at least fourteen (14) days before the triage screening date.
KBR 70.24(17) states that the responding party must file and serve their Certificate of Prerequisite Completion and triage brief no later than four (4) days before the triage screening date. Where a responding party fails to file and serve their Certificate of Prerequisite Completion and triage brief four days before the triage screening date as is required, the family proceeding is adjourned on the Triage Screening List. There have been cases where a family proceeding has been adjourned repeatedly as a result of the failure of a responding party to file and serve the required documents.
The failure of a responding party to file and serve their triage documents may be the result of the parties wishing to focus on settlement discussions. Regrettably, the failure may also be due to a responding party attempting to delay the scheduling of a triage conference.
Counsel are reminded that in the event of unnecessary delay in setting the date of a triage conference, a moving party should seek an order from an associate judge forthwith. An associate judge will grant the appropriate order and cost award if requested, to ensure that a moving party is able to proceed to triage on a timely basis
Effective February 3, 2026, where a proceeding appears on the Triage Screening List a third time, the required triage documents of the moving and the responding parties must be filed, failing which it will be struck off the List on a without prejudice basis. Only where the Associate Chief Justice has granted an adjournment, which will be granted only in exceptional circumstances, will the proceeding not be struck off the list.
A proceeding that has been struck off may be brought back on the Triage Screening List by filing a new Request for Triage Conference (Form 70D.2) and a requisition with payment of the filing fee.
Scheduling A Triage Conference
The Triage Conference Co-ordinator advises counsel and/or the self-represented party(ies) by email when all applicable prerequisites in a family proceeding have been satisfied. The email sets out the available hearing dates for a triage conference and requests that counsel and/or the self-represented party(ies) confirm their availability by return email no later than 11:00 a.m. on the Tuesday Triage Screening List.
Ms. Angie Tkachuk, Triage Conference Co-ordinator, presides over the Triage Screening List every Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. She may be contacted by email or by teleconference.
In the event that neither counsel nor the self-represented party(ies) respond to the email from the Triage Conference Co-ordinator, the proceeding will be struck off the Triage Screening List on a without prejudice basis.
The proceeding may be brought back on the Triage Screening List by filing a new Request for Triage Conference (Form 70D.2) and a requisition with payment of the requisite filing fee.
Coming into effect
This Practice Direction comes into effect immediately.”
To reflect the obligation of a judge to ensure that a self-represented litigant has the opportunity to meaningfully participate in the hearing and has a reasonable opportunity to present his or her case to the best of his or her ability, where a motion or application involving a self-represented litigant is to be contested before a judge, prior to the hearing of the contested motion or application, a judge may require the parties to appear at one case management conference with a judge for the purpose of the judge ensuring that the contested matter is ready to proceed, to explain the process and to otherwise advise the self-represented litigant what may be expected. Such a conference may be held by the judge at the time of the appearance on the Civil Uncontested List or may be scheduled before a judge for up to a one-hour period at 9:00 a.m. on a different day.
This practice direction addresses the process by which a plaintiff may, subject to the Court’s discretion, seek to have the originating pleadings and related court records anonymized (i.e., for a plaintiff to be identified using the pseudonym “Unnamed Person” rather than their full legal name). The Court may, at its discretion, make an anonymity order to permit a plaintiff to bring proceedings anonymously in exceptional circumstances where the public interest in open courts is displaced by another important public interest.
A cornerstone of the Court of King’s Bench Rules is proportionality. This foundational principle extends to written materials that are filed in civil and family proceedings. Increasingly, there is a trend towards longer application and motion briefs, which gives rise to concerns about proportionality and even effective advocacy
To address these concerns, the Court considered imposing limits on the length of briefs. However, recognizing the wide range and varying degrees of complexity of applications and motions, for now, the court has instead opted to simply remind counsel that the most effective briefs are concise and focused. In any given case, should a judge determine that a brief is disproportionate to the nature and complexity of the issue at hand, they may request a more succinct version.
To assist in reducing the volume of material filed as written argument on applications and motions, the following cases, establishing well-known legal principles, need not be included in briefs:
• Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services v. M.B.H., 2019 MBCA 91;
• White Burgess Langille Inman v. Abbott and Haliburton Co., 2015 SCC 23;
• Hryniak v. Mauldin, [2014] 1 S.C.R. 87; and
• RJR McDonald Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), [1994] 1 S.C.R. 311.
Finally, it is increasingly common that a file contains affidavits, cross-examination transcripts, and written submissions that are relevant to different scheduled hearings with a lack of information as to which party has filed which documents and for which scheduled hearing. To assist in addressing this concern, the following will now apply to these materials:
• A moving party’s brief shall include a blue cover page;
• A responding party’s brief shall include a beige cover page;
• The cover pages of all affidavits, transcripts, and motions and applications briefs must identify the nature of the motion or application in parentheses immediately below the document title.
For the purpose of transition, the foregoing only applies to documents filed after the date this practice direction comes into effect.
A Pilot Project is being undertaken as part of this Court’s ongoing commitment to enhance access to justice in the area of family law.
King’s Bench Rule 70.24(12) currently permits a judge to hear a motion or application prior to a triage conference in three emergent situations.
…
Following consultation with the Triage Implementation Committee and the Family Law Bar, it has been concluded that there shall be a fourth emergent situation where a judge may hear a pre-triage conference motion or application. This emergent situation is:
(d) extreme financial hardship of a party or a child of a party
…
This Practice Direction comes into effect immediately.
In order to maximize the court’s ability to offer timely trial dates, it is important that the trial coordinator be advised as soon as possible that an action scheduled for trial is resolved. As such, when an action set for trial resolves, in addition to filing a notice of discontinuance or judgment dismissing, please immediately advise the trial coordinator that the related trial dates may be released.
June 25, 2023 – Cases involving Statutory Interpretation– “In order to ensure that proper consideration is given to both the French and English versions of legislation where a case involves an issue of statutory interpretation, counsel or a self-represented litigant are to address in their related submissions whether there is discrepancy between the English and French versions. If there is discrepancy, this discrepancy is to be addressed in the submissions regarding the proper interpretation of the statutory provision(s) at issue in accordance with the approach outlined in 5185603 Manitoba Ltd et al v Government of Manitoba et al.”
June 25, 2023 – Tracking of Related Files – “In order to ensure that the judge hearing a matter is aware of related proceedings, counsel must provide information as to any related proceedings in their pre-trial, triage or case conference briefs. When filing a motion or application in a matter where there is a related proceeding, counsel must file a requisition asking that the related file be provided to the judge along with the file in which the motion or application is brought.”
June 25, 2023 – Use of Artificial Intelligence in Court Submissions– “…there are legitimate concerns about the reliability and accuracy of the information generated from the use of artificial intelligence. To address these concerns, when artificial intelligence has been used in the preparation of materials filed with the court, the materials must indicate how artificial intelligence was used.”
The Manitoba Law Library would like to acknowledge with gratitude that we are situated on Treaty One Territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree and Dakota peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.
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