REGARDING THE EFFECTS OF THE COVID-19 ON THE COURTS

On March 13, 2020, the Québec Government declared a state of public health emergency throughout Québec. In doing so, the Chief Justice of Québec and the Minister of Justice have obtained new powers to suspend or extend certain deadlines.

On March 15, 2020, the Chief Justice of Québec and the Minister of Justice issued an order with immediate effect, to suspend civil proceedings for as long as the Government will maintain the state of public health emergency.

On March 20, 2020, the government extended the state of emergency to March 29, 2020, and on the 29th, the date was extended to April 7. This state will likely be prolonged again.

During this period, the statutes of limitations and of procedures, particularly the deadlines for extinctive prescription, forfeitures and civil proceedings, are suspended. It will, therefore, be important to carefully monitor the extensions of time set for the state of health emergency to calculate the time frames for forfeiture of rights, to avoid losing them.

Meanwhile, a series of measures have been put in place in the province’s courts to ensure the health and safety of litigants and justice system personnel. The following is a summary:

Québec Court of Appeal:

  • hearings to be held between now and May 1st are postponed indefinitely
  • however, the parties may jointly request that their case be decided without a hearing on the basis of written documents
  • in the event of an emergency, hearings may be held in a case-by-case manner

Québec Superior Court and Québec Court:

  • hearings to be held between now and May 1st are postponed indefinitely
  • some courtrooms remain open to deal with urgent matters, such as interlocutory

Concerning bailiffs, it continues being possible to serve documents in emergency situations.

Finally, although judicial activities are limited, the courts encourage the parties lawyers’ to discuss amongst themselves and use the technological means available to advance their case. In fact, a hearing with witnesses was held on March 26th at the Trois Rivières courthouse. We can only hope that other courthouses will join in to help access to justice in this time of crisis.