ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court is increasing its operations in courthouses off the Avalon Peninsula in light of public health restriction changes.
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians living outside the Avalon recently saw an easing of COVID-19-related public health restrictions, moving into Alert Level 4. Residents of the Avalon Peninsula remain on Alert Level 5 due to the most recent COVID-19 outbreak.
Outside the Avalon, supreme court operations for the week of March 8-12 will remain in a virtual services mode, following the same procedure as the court in St. John’s, but will resume hearing all matters currently on the docket as of March 15. Registries in those courts will reopen to the public.
Trials by judge alone scheduled to take place in courthouses off the Avalon after March 15 will proceed, with the court to determine whether they will be heard virtually or in person. Hearings in criminal matters and hearings in civil and family matters expected to take longer than five minutes will go ahead in person unless decided otherwise. Other matters will proceed virtually.
No new matters will be scheduled during March, except for those that are urgent.
(1/2) The Supreme Court is introducing changes to its operations in all judicial centres outside of the Avalon Peninsula beginning March 15, 2021. On that date the registries in those locations will re-open to the public.
— Supreme Court of Newfoundland & Labrador (@NLSupremeCourt) March 4, 2021
Supreme court operations in the St. John’s area will remain the same as they have been for the past month, proceeding virtually as they did last spring. All criminal jury trials set to begin in St. John's in March have been postponed, as have all criminal and civil judge-alone trials, unless the judge in the latter cases directs the trial to proceed by videoconference. Court staff will be in touch with parties involved in postponed matters to provide a new trial date.
Urgent criminal matters — including bail hearings, bail review applications where the accused is in custody and detention reviews — will proceed virtually or, where necessary, in person. Any proceeding that had already been scheduled to take place by phone or video will go ahead as planned.
The following matters will be heard virtually: pre-trial conferences, case management conferences, applications to set a date, settlement conferences, civil appeals and another application as decided by a judge. Urgent and emergency matters will be heard, as assessed by a judge.
The court registries will remain closed, and a mail hub has been established for dropoff and pickup of documents.
As for family court operations in St. John's, all trials scheduled to begin in March will be postponed unless the judge decides to proceed virtually. Postponed trials will be rescheduled and court staff will be in touch to provide a new date. Urgent family matters — including requests for urgent relief relating to the safety of a child or parent, applications relating to medical decisions or wrongful removal of a child, applications to preserve property or assets, warrants under the Child, Youth and Families Act and new applications under the Adult Protection Act will proceed virtually or, where required, in person.
Any family proceedings previously scheduled to take place virtually will go ahead as planned, as will case management hearings, interim application hearings, default summons, objection to recalculation hearings, trial readiness conferences and settlement conferences. To facilitate scheduling, those involved in family court proceedings are asked to email the court to ensure their contact information is up to date: [email protected].
“The Supreme Court will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation across the province to determine whether any further changes to operations are required,” Chief Justice Raymond Whalen stated in a written notice.
