News & Announcements

The Court is pleased to join the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) in announcing new handbooks for self-represented litigants on Courtroom processes and procedures for civil, criminal and family litigation. As stated by Associate Chief Justice John Rooke, CJC lead on this initiative, “We hope these resources will provide helpful guidance to all.”

A Notice of Re-Election from Judge and Jury to Judge Alone Criminal Trial and Consent to Re-Election Form is now available on the Court's Criminal webpage / L'Avis de nouveau choix quant au mode de procès d'un procès criminel devant juge et jury à un procès devant juge seul, ainsi que le Consentement au nouveau choix, sont désormais disponibles sur la page Web de la Cour sous l'onglet "Criminal".

Due to the continuing pandemic and the need to reduce the number of people attending EVV Hearings in person at the same time, the process for EVV Oral Hearings has been changed. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

A Court of Queen's Bench Criminal Bail Release Form of Order is now available for Counsel and Court use. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

On April 12, 2021, a new online search portal will be launched, allowing Albertans to submit a search request for civil actions in any Court of Queen's Bench location and receive the results by email. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

Effective immediately, if you wish to serve a commencement document in a foreign country that is a Contracting State to the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters, you must comply with the Hague Service Convention requirements. New reference material, including forms and instruction booklets have been made available on the Court site. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

In order to facilitate the more timely processing of draft Orders submitted to the Court via email, counsel and parties are asked to send draft Orders in .doc or docx (ie., Microsoft Word) format in Justice Chambers and Family Chambers, and PDF format in Applications Judges' Chambers. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

A Criminal Appearance Court (CAC) Adjournment Form is now available for Counsel and Court use. For further details, please refer to the full announcement.

The Alberta Debtor Support Project ramps up existing pro bono legal resources, and also offers two new resources to assist Albertans struggling with debt. The Project website provides an overview of the resources available and offers a portal for lawyers, both active and retired, to volunteer to assist Albertans dealing with debt. Volunteers will receive detailed online training to meet the expected increased demand for assistance. The project hopes to partner with additional Approved Legal Service Providers throughout Alberta to encourage and train their volunteers. For more information, please refer to the full announcement.

It is now possible for counsel to file all materials in Civil and Family proceedings electronically, via email. However, in some locations, up to 50% of the materials received by the Court have been filed with the clerk, at the counter, on paper. For the time being, while the public health crisis persists, it is in the interests of public health – and in the interests of the health of Court staff as well as counsel, court runners, and any other individuals who may be required to file materials – that personal attendance at courthouses and filing queues be avoided. To that end, the Court is mandating that any material filed by counsel, in any civil or family proceeding, must be filed electronically, via email, per the directions set out in the December 11, 2020 Announcement from RCAS.