Legal Blog

Pre-Trial Certificate

Kampers v. York Fire & Casualty Insurance Company 2019 Ont CA

Rule 50.08(3) requires a pre-trial judge to deliver a pre-trial conference report and counsel to certify on the copy of the report he or she understands the contents of the report and acknowledges the obligation to be ready to proceed on the date fixed for the trial or hearing. In this case, counsel had agreed at the pre-trial that Ontario law, rather than Nevada law, applied to the dispute. In a subsequent pre-trial, plaintiff’s counsel realised he had been in error and indicated that he would take the position that Nevada law applied. The Court of Appeal upheld the motion judge’s ruling that signing a pre-trial certificate was not the equivalent of entering into a litigation agreement; the plaintiff had made an admission, but, under the Rules, admissions could be withdrawn and, in this case, the admission was allowed to be withdrawn. The Court noted that the signing of a certificate merely acknowledges the obligation to be ready to proceed, nothing more.

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