Civil Procedure and Evidence

This decision by Madam Justice Joanne Veit of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench clarifies that counsel and parties to litigation in Alberta do not currently have an obligation to provide “evergreen” oral discovery. Counsel may have an obligation to disclose “after-acquired information” if it is requested by opposing counsel, and may have an obligation to correct misleading evidence provided by a witness. However, neither of those obligations requires them or their clients to disclose that the witness’s evidence at trial will be different from that given at discovery because the witness’s memory of events has now improved. The case also clarifies that while the Law Society remains the “best authority on compliance by its members with its Code of Professional Conduct,” “a lawyer’s ethical responsibility exists at common law, independently of any Code of Conduct” (para. 22 and 26).

Security for Costs on Appeals by Impecunious and Vexatious Litigants

By Jonnette Watson Hamilton

On February 20, 2008

In Civil Procedure, Vexatious Litigants

Cases Considered: Opal v. White, 2008 ABCA 25

PDF Version: Security for Costs on Appeals by Impecunious and Vexatious Litigants

The very short judgment of Mr. Justice Frans Slatter in Opal v. White is an unlikely candidate for a comment. It is barely more than a page – a scant seven paragraphs – and it cites neither rules nor precedents in deciding three applications for security for costs. Nevertheless, the judgment’s treatment of the issue of security for costs on an appeal of an order declaring the appellant to be a vexatious litigant is noteworthy.

Alberta’s New Vexatious Litigant Law Applied

By Jonnette Watson Hamilton

On January 12, 2008

In Civil Procedure, Vexatious Litigants

Cases Considered: O’Neill v. Deacons, 2007 ABQB 754

PDF Version: Alberta’s New Vexatious Litigant Law Applied

The Alberta government passed new legislation in June of 2007 to give courts in the province more power to deal more effectively with “vexatious litigants.” These individuals were described by the Honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Ron Stevens, in the Legislative Assembly on second reading of the amendments, in the following terms: