CANADA Law and Practice Contributed by: Craig Ferris, Marko Vesely, Shannon Hayes and Catherine Whitehead, Lawson Lundell LLP
As a term of the order, the court will likely require the moving party to compensate third parties for any reasonable expenses incurred in complying with the terms of the injunction order. 6.7 Consequences of a Respondent’s Non- Compliance Injunctions are enforced through contempt of court. If a party fails to comply with an injunction, the party will be required to appear before the court to show cause for why they should not be held in contempt of court. There are specific procedures that the moving party must follow when an order for contempt is sought. After hearing from the parties, the court may allow the offending party to purge their contempt by complying with the order within a certain timeframe, or the court may impose a penalty such as a fine or imprisonment. The court has wide jurisdiction to fashion a remedy to address the seriousness of the contempt. Some courts have a simplified trial procedure for less complex matters where the dispute is adjudicated primarily through written evidence. All other trials are conducted in open court with witness evidence, unless the court orders otherwise. To ensure a speedy or efficient trial, the parties may agree in advance to admit certain facts or provide the judge with certain documents as agreed exhibits. If no agreements are reached, witnesses are called, and their oral testimony and any documents are admitted based on the rules of evidence and procedure for that court. 7. Trials and Hearings 7.1 Trial Proceedings At the trial, both sides may provide an oral opening statement. Depending on the complexity of the trial, the trial judge may also request a shorter written argu- ment or bench brief before trial to assist him or her with understanding the evidence and the issues. At the end of the trial, both sides will also typically provide oral and written submissions regarding the
issues, the applicable legal principles, the weight to be given to the admitted evidence and the relief sought. 7.2 Case Management Hearings The rules of procedure differ regarding the procedure for hearing interim applications. Some types of appli- cations, such as orders that may be consented to by the parties, may fall within a written procedure. Less complex applications that are opposed but require less than a prescribed period of time to argue may be heard in regular chambers before a judge on a few days’ notice. More substantive applications that are opposed, such as a summary judgment or an application to strike, may have to be scheduled months in advance through a court co-ordinator for two hours or more of court time. The parties are largely responsible for complying with the deadlines contained in the rules of procedure for the applicable steps leading up to the trial. However, the parties may consent to or obtain orders for liti- gation plans or other orders that deviate from those default deadlines. Case management is where a judge is seized of the matter and will hear all pre-trial applications, but pos- sibly not the trial. Not all commercial matters qualify for or need case management. If a matter is not under case management, the pre-trial applications will be The rules of procedure or another provincial statute will govern when a trial may be heard by a jury. For example, in some jurisdictions, a statute lists the types of causes of action that, upon application, may be heard by a jury, such as claims for defamation, mali- cious prosecution and false imprisonment. In others, the rules of procedure identify what causes of action cannot be heard by a jury, such as those relating to the specific performance of a contract or the dissolution of a partnership. The default rule is that trials of commercial matters are heard by a judge alone. If a party wishes to have a matter determined by a jury, they will be required to comply with the local rules, such as filing and serving assigned to an available judge. 7.3 Jury Trials in Civil Cases
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