Introduction to Civil Litigation

• Author: Tina Kamakaris/Jane Kamakaris/Louis Kamakaris
• Pages: 119-134

119

Chapter 9 Introduction to Civil Litigation

CHAPTER 9

is chapter discusses civil litigation as an adversarial system of justice and provides details of the

procedural stages through which civil litigation actions must proceed in reaching trial.

Civil litigation (from the Latin litigatio, a dispute) involves law suits between private citizens, where a

plainti (the party who begins a law suit) sues a defendant (the party who is being sued), usually for

monetary compensation because the defendant did something wrong or was negligent in some way.

RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE

Regardless of the type of civil litigation dispute, the civil litigation action is adversarial and resem-

bles that of a tennis match. e ball, which starts on the plainti’s side of the court, goes over to

the defendant’s side, and back and forth between the two players, until they are both at trial, at

which time, the court gives its judgment (decision) in favour of one of the parties, based on the

facts and the law.

It would be dicult to conduct an adversarial dispute without rules. e Rules of Civil Proced-

ure set out all of the rules to be followed in civil disputes, including all of the court forms to be

used. is ensures province-wide uniformity in procedures (steps) and documents (court forms).

Following is an example of how Rule 14 tells all lawyers how to begin an action and what court

forms to use in doing so. Note that the court forms are correlated with the rule numbers that

prescribe them, e.g. Form 14A is a statement of claim (general) under Rule 14:

HOW PROCEEDINGS COMMENCED

By Issuing Originating Process

14.01(1) A proceeding shall be commenced by the issuing of an originating process...

ACTIONS--BY STATEMENT OF CLAIM OR NOTICE OF ACTION

Statement of Claim

14.03(1) e originating process for the commencement of an action is a statement of

claim (Form 14A (general) or 14B (mortgage actions)), except as provided by,

(a) subrule (2) (notice of action)...

INTRODUCTION TO

CIVIL LITIGATION

Copyright © 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.

120 Legal Office Procedures

TYPES OF CIVIL LITIGATION PROCEDURES

Generally, there are two main types of procedures in civil litigation — ordinary procedure and

simplied procedure.

ORDINARY PROCEDURE

All ordinary procedure actions proceed to trial in these ve stages: (1) claim, (2) pleadings,

(3) discoveries, (4) pre-trial, and (5) trial, as shown in Figure 9.1. Note that all actions that

reach trial begin with a document called statement of claim and end with a judgment. e

steps may vary only in the pleadings stage where defendants may defend, counterclaim,

crossclaim, or commence a third party proceeding, depending on which route would be

appropriate in the case at hand. e remaining stages of discoveries, pre-trial, and trial are the

same in all ordinary procedure actions, regardless of which route the defendant might have

taken in the pleadings stage.

Figure 9.1 STEPS IN TRIAL — ORDINARY PROCEDURE

STATEMENT OF CLAIM, ∏

DISCOVERIES, Π and Δ

PRE-TRIAL, Π or Δ

TRIAL: JUDGMENT

Statement of Defence, Δ

20/40/60 days after service

of Statement of Claim

Reply, Π

10 days after service of

Statement of Defence

JURY NOTICE, Π or Δ

CLOSE OF PLEADINGS, Π or Δ

Statement of Defence

and Counterclaim, Δ,

20/40/60 days after service

of Statement of Claim

Defence to Counterclaim, Π

20 days after service of the

Statement of Defence

Reply to Defence to

Counterclaim, Δ,

10 days after service of

Defence to Counterclaim

Statement of Defence

and Crossclaim, Δ,

20/40/60 days after service

of Statement of Claim

Defence to Crossclaim, Π

20 days after service of the

Defence to Crossclaim

Reply to Defence to

Crossclaim, Δ,

10 days after service of

Defence to Crossclaim

Greek pi Π = Plaintiff Greek delta Δ = Defendant

20/40/60 = 20 days within Ontario; 40 days elsewhere in Canada or USA; 60 days anywhere else.

3. DISCOVERIES

4. PRE-TRIAL

5. TRIAL

2. PLEADINGS

1. CLAIM

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