On May 5, 2020, Chief Justice Morawetz released a statement confirming that the suspension of in-person hearings at the Superior Court of Justice, which first came into effect on March 17, 2020, will continue until July 6, 2020. Resumption of in-person hearings will not occur until after this date, at the earliest.
The Court has been moving at an unprecedented pace to adopt available technology to keep the matters moving but the scope of these matters is still quite limited. Initially the Court committed to dealing with only the most urgent matters, but effective April 6, 2020, this mandate was expanded to allow some non-urgent matters to be dealt with, in Superior Court and in the appellate courts. The mandate has not been expanded in a uniform way across the province and there continue to be differences in what can and cannot be heard virtually across the judicial regions in the province.
In the May 5, 2020 statement, the Chief Justice advised us to stand by for an announcement expanding the scope of matters that can be heard virtually, and we look forward to hearing what additional progress can be made as we all strive to keep matters moving through the courts, despite the suspension of in-person hearings.
We will continue to monitor and report on the operations of the Superior Court through the pandemic.