“On July 23, 2024, the provincial government enacted Ontario Regulation 300/24 which added Rule 4.05.3 to the Rules of Civil Procedure. The Family Law Rules incorporate certain aspects of the Rules of Civil Procedure by reference, confirming at Rule 1(7) that reference is to be had to the Rules of Civil Procedure if a matter is not covered under the Family Law Rules. The portions of Rule 4.03.5 applicable to today’s situation are as follows:
4.05.3 (1) In this rule,
“CaseLines” means the software authorized by the Ministry of the Attorney General for the purposes of this rule and that is available on the internet under the name “CaseLines”.
(2) This rule applies to all or part of any hearing, pre-trial conference or case conference under these rules, except in a proceeding in the Court of Appeal.
(3) A party shall provide the following documents to the court by submitting them to CaseLines in accordance with this rule, if the court requires the party to do so:
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- Every document the party files or has filed with the court in respect of the hearing or conference.
- Subject to subrule (5), any other document in the court file that the party intends to rely on at the hearing or conference and that has not already been submitted to CaseLines by another party.
- A compendium containing the excerpted portions of the cases and of the evidence to which the party intends to refer during the hearing or conference.
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(4) Subject to subrule (5), the documents listed in subrule (3) must be submitted to CaseLines by the following deadline:
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- In the case of the hearing of a motion or application where the party is required to give the registrar a confirmation of motion (Form 37B) or confirmation of application (Form 38B), the deadline is 2 p.m. three days before the hearing date, unless the court orders otherwise.
- In any other case, the deadline is five days before the date of the hearing or conference, unless the court orders otherwise.
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(8) The party shall ensure that every document that the party submits to CaseLines is identical to that document as contained in the court file, subject to any modifications required by this rule or the court.
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(11) For greater certainty, submitting documents to CaseLines does not amount to the filing or service of those documents under these rules.
Here, again maintaining the exception for costs-related materials, I note that Father uploaded a Financial Statement and an updated Form 35.1 Affidavit to Case Center yesterday.
Case Center has been in use for almost three years. At no time were parties permitted to upload materials without ensuring their proper service and filing. As Justice Piccoli wrote in the unreported case of Dragomir v. Lucuta, Court File No. FC-10-FS-44165-003, heard at Kitchener on November 11, 2024.:
We have long been taking a lenient approach to issues with materials out of compassion for litigants and counsel and in an attempt to ensure access to justice. However, as former Senior Family Judge Czutrin famously reminded us, “what we permit, we promote.”
In that case, Her Honour struck the motion from the list, requiring all materials to be properly filed and uploaded to Case Center before a fresh hearing date could be arranged.
It is not the Court’s responsibility either to pursue counsel to ensure that they have properly filed materials referenced in their Confirmations or to act in a secretarial capacity on the hearing date and correct administrative errors. The only reasonable exception is for materials related to the issue of costs, which would normally be reviewed only at the conclusion of the motion hearing.
Therefore, these motions proceed with argument only on the above-listed documents which have actually been served and filed.”