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New Practice Direction BCSC

The Advocate

October 23, 2023

Please be advised that effective October 17, 2023, Chief Justice Hinkson has amended three practice directions:

• Practice Direction 4 has been renamed Judicial Management and Early Assignment of a Trial Judge or Hearing Judge in Civil and Family Proceedings, and revised to:
  • Update the procedure to be followed by parties requesting judicial management and/or the early assignment of a trial judge or hearing judge in civil and family proceedings, and to clarify the criteria applicable to such requests; and
  • Make PD – 4 applicable to proceedings commenced under the Class Proceedings Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 50.
• Practice Direction 5 – Class Proceedings has been updated to:
  • Remove the direction that a party in a proceeding commenced under the Class Proceedings Act may request the assignment of a case management judge by filing a Request for Assignment of Judge with the Scheduling Manager of the appropriate registry (as this process has been replaced by the procedures set out in Practice Direction 4); and
  • Direct that certification applications in proceedings commenced under the Class Proceedings Act are not to be set for hearing in regular chambers.  Where a proceeding under the Class Proceedings Act has been assigned to a judge for judicial management under Practice Direction 4, a certification application in that proceeding shall be scheduled before that judge using the process set out in Practice Direction 18.  Where a proceeding under the Class Proceedings Act has not been assigned to a judge for judicial management under Practice Direction 4, a certification application in that proceeding shall, irrespective of the parties’ time estimate(s) for the hearing of that application, be scheduled through the lengthy chambers booking process. This will allow Scheduling to oversee and manage the assignment of judges to hear certification applications in class proceedings.
• Practice Direction 55 – Canadian Judicial Protocol for the Management of Multi-jurisdictional Class Actions and the Provision of Class Action Notice has been updated to note that it should be read together with PD – 4 and PD – 5.