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New Practice Direction re Judge-Alone Trials

The Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench has issued the following new practice direction:

Beginning in February 2018, as a one-year pilot project, all pre-trial conferences for judge-alone trials in the case of new criminal matters will be managed by one of approximately eight judges. A first group of four of these pre-trial judges will be assigned to this project for the first six months of the year and a second group of four pre-trial judges will be assigned to this project for the second six months of the year. Each new criminal matter proceeding by judge-alone will be assigned to one of these pre-trial judges.

Please read the practice direction in full.

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ONCA on Mortgage Enforcement

When homeowners fall behind on their mortgage payments, lenders have the option of foreclosure. Judges have leeway to reach a decision that is equitable to the lender as well as sympathetic to the mortgagor. In Winters v. Hunking, the Court of Appeal overturned a default judgment ordering foreclosure.

The recent decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Winters v Hunking, 2017 ONCA 909 provides an example of the court acknowledging that the mortgagor may have been within its strict legal rights to seek foreclosure on the appellant’s home, but finding that “special circumstances” made such a foreclosure unjust in the circumstances.[FN]

Winters v. Hunking, 2017 ONCA 909

[FN] Commentary by Scott McGrath, Weir Foulds LLP available on Lexology:

Lenders Should Think Twice Before Foreclosing on Sympathetic Mortgagors

 

 

 

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O Juris-mas tree, O Juris-mas tree …

This year, the staff at the Manitoba Law Library have been busy!

In addition to our regular duties, this past week we put up a Christmas tree. Well actually … a Juris-mas tree! Using old editions of the Corpus Juris Secundum, we set up a neat, festive feature that has been capturing the attention of everyone here.

We hope you’ll be able to join us for a holiday celebration on Wednesday, December 20th between 2 and 4. You’ll be able to check out the tree for yourself while enjoying some festive cheer.

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Charterpedia!

The law librarian world is geeking out today over Charterpedia, the federal government’s compilation of analysis and caselaw on the Canadian Charter. It’s like a crowd-sourced annotated Charter, for free!

This Charterpedia provides legal information about the Charter and contains information about the purpose of each section of the Charter, the analysis or test developed through case law in respect of the section, and any particular considerations related to it. Each Charterpedia entry cites relevant case law, and citations to Supreme Court of Canada decisions are hyperlinked whenever possible.

If you don’t have access to a paid annotated Charter product (or even if you do), I’d highly recommend starting with this.

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Manitoba Queen’s Bench Rules, amended

Manitoba’s civil Queen’s Bench Rules are undergoing a significant amendment effective January 1, 2018. As noted in Chief Justice Joyal’s practice direction issued on November 8, 2017, the new rules and practices involve four major changes:

  1. Judicial involvement in managing cases;
  2. Trial scheduling;
  3. Judicially assisted dispute resolution (JADR); and
  4. Summary judgment.

Prior to the enforcement date, you can review the unconsolidated amendment which was registered October 2, 2017.

If you rely on the print looseleaf edition of the rules, Prof. Busby’s Manitoba Queen’s Bench Rules Annotated, make sure you check Manitoba Law’s website for an up-to-date version until the print edition is updated.