This Announcement applies only to materials that are required to be filed through email filing. All documents that are required to be submitted through the King's Bench Filing Digital Service (FDS) must be submitted there. We encourage counsel to be familiar with what is accepted via FDS and submit all eligible documents through this service. A list of documents accepted by FDS can be found here.
Commencing November 1, 2022, Documents filed via email will be considered filed on the date that they are processed and stamped by King’s Bench Administration.
When King’s Bench Administration started accepting email filing, it was determined that documents should be considered filed on either the day submitted, or if submitted after business hours, on the next business day. This was in recognition of some of the significant change in process undertaken due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the filing lead times that existed across the province.
Now that filing lead times have been significantly reduced, and in order to maintain consistency with the Filing Digital Service, the process of backdating will stop November 1, 2022. Anything received via email November 1st, 2022 or later, will not be backdated. Anything received via email October 31st, 2022 or earlier will be backdated regardless of the date of processing. After November 1st, 2022 documents will be considered filed on the date processed and stamped by King’s Bench Administration. If a document is rejected, it will not be considered filed until it is resubmitted and stamped by King’s Bench Administration.
All other email filing related procedures, including naming conventions, remain the same.
Email submissions will be considered “Urgent” if there is a limitation period or other Court ordered or statutory filing deadline within 3 days or within the current lead time for the location of filing, whichever is longer. If you have an approaching limitation period please do the following:
- All urgent matters that are eligible on the Filing Digital Service should be filed there. For a list of eligible documents please go to https://qb-filing.alberta.ca/
- If your document is not eligible, send an email to the appropriate filing email address with a subject line “test”. The auto-reply you receive will include the current lead teams for all areas. (Note: filing lead times are posted the first day of the week.)
- If your limitation period or Court ordered or statutory deadline is within 3 days or within the current lead time, whichever is longer, please indicate Urgent Limitation Period in the subject line before the designated naming convention and send the documents for filing. Please include the date of the deadline in the body of the email.
- If your limitation period or Court ordered deadline is not within 3 days or the current lead time, it can still be filed as urgent. Please include the word Urgent in the subject line before the designated naming convention.
- All email filing submissions being identified as Urgent will require a letter on law firm letterhead outlining the nature of the emergency to accompany the filing submission. If your request is marked urgent and a letter does not accompany it, your submission will be processed in the normal course. This letter is not required for documents identified as Urgent Limitation Period. (Please refer to the earlier announcement: https://www.albertacourts.ca/qb/resources/announcements/announcement-from-court-justice-services-(cjs)---urgent-filing-letter)
(Note: For any questions or concerns about a filing, please send an email to QB Filing and record ‘ATTENTION SUPERVISOR’ in the subject line as these requests are triaged daily.)
Email addresses, naming conventions and other email filing procedures can be located at:
News & Announcements (albertacourts.ca)