Preparing and Serving Court Documents

• Author: Tina Kamakaris/Jane Kamakaris/Louis Kamakaris
• Pages: 99-118

99

Chapter 8 Preparing and Serving Court Documents

CHAPTER 8

Court documents play by the rules. is chapter provides detailed guidance on preparing court

documents and eecting service under the rules.

PREPARING COURT DOCUMENTS

Court documents must always wear the name of the court. e Rules of Civil Procedure prescribe

the forms to be used and identify each form by the rule number which prescribes it: for example,

Rule 4 requires that an adavit be in Form 4D. Under Rule 4, the basic format of court docu-

ments consists of three parts and a backsheet:

HEADING Includes the title of proceeding (name of plainti and defendant)

BODY Includes the title of the document (statement of claim)

ENDING In Precedent 8.1, begins at the date, which is the date of preparing the document

In Precedent 8.2, begins at the jurat (Sworn before me...)

BACKSHEET Required for nearly all court documents, Precedents 8.1 and 8.2

PREPARING AND

SERVING COURT

DOCUMENTS

Figure 8.1 Heading

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100 Legal Office Procedures

Heading Figure 8.1 is an example of a heading of a court document. For a full view of this

document, see Precedent 8.1 at the back of this chapter.

e heading of all court documents includes the court le number, the name of the court, the

word BETWEEN, and the title of proceeding, which consists of the name of the plainti (the

party suing) and the name of the defendant (the party being sued). Once the plainti and the

defendant have been named in the title of proceeding, they are usually referred to as the parties.

Key the names of the parties in block capital letters. If individuals, key at least one given name

and the surname of each individual. A middle name, if any, may be expressed in full or by an

initial, e.g. GEORGE J. SMITH. e heading in Figure 8.1 indicates that the action has been

brought in the Superior Court of Justice under Court File No. CV-**-2345 (CV = civil action;

** = last two digits of the year in which the action was commenced), that George J. Smith and

omas Jones are the plaintis, and that they are suing Jane Austen, the defendant.

Figure 8.2 Body

Body e body of a court document gives the details of the law suit and includes the title of

the document, e.g. STATEMENT OF DEFENCE. e body of a court document is usually

double spaced, with or without additional line spacing between paragraphs. Figure 8.2 is an

excerpt of a body of a court document.

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