Legal Blog

Case Conference Judicial Powers

Miller v. Ledra 2023 Ont SCJ

At a case conference for leave to schedule a motion or application or an appeal from an associate judge, the presiding judge may, instead of scheduling the interim proceeding for resolution, actually resolve the issue at hand if the prejudice allowing an adjournment or moving the issue forward would outweigh the prejudice to the losing party of deciding the issue. In this case, the only issue was the production of financial statements for 3 years – even though the respondent denied that the applicant was a shareholder. The judge held that the prejudice to the respondent would be minimal.

Written by Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.