Practice Direction No. 5

Guidelines for the Submission of Documents—Books of Authorities, Books of Documents, Expert Reports and Exhibits

Amendment Notice: 
Effective January 14, 2025, Practice Direction No. 5 issued on April 2, 2012, and amended on September 4, 2019, as well as Practice Direction No. 8 issued on May 6, 2013 and amended on September 4, 2019, are revoked and replaced by Practice Direction No. 5 below.

General

1. This Practice Direction amends and augments subrule 17(2) of the Specific Claims Tribunal Rules of Practice and Procedure, SOR/2011-119, which reads:

   Format
   (2) A document must be filed in PDF (Portable Document Format) or any other electronic format that allows the document to be converted for printing on letter size paper.

2. All documents must be filed in PDF in an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) format. This includes the table of contents.

3. This Practice Direction also amends and augments Rule 15 of the Specific Claims Tribunal Rules of Practice and Procedure, SOR/2011-119, which reads:

   Filing after 17:00
   15 A document that is filed by email or fax after 17:00 Ottawa local time is deemed to have been filed on the next day that is not a holiday.

4. From now on, a document filed at or before 23:59:59, Ottawa local time, on a business day is deemed to have been filed on that day. A document filed on a holiday or weekend is deemed to have been filed on the next business day.
5. All documents submitted to the Tribunal must include a cover page that contains the style of cause, file number, title of document and volume number, if any. A “Cover Page” template is available on the Tribunal's website.
6. All documents with multiple pages must have page numbers.

Books of Authorities

7. If a hearing participant—whether a party or an applicant—intends to rely on caselaw in argument, these cases must be part of a Book of Authorities. 
8. Each Book of Authorities must be submitted electronically using the Tribunal's E-Filing application, unless otherwise directed by the Tribunal.
9. Each Book of Authorities must include only the cases counsel for each party and applicant intend to rely on in argument. The relevant passages must be underlined or sidelined.
10. Each Book of Authorities must include a table of contents. If a Book of Authorities is separated into multiple volumes, each volume must have its own table of contents. The table of contents and each case should be a separate bookmark to facilitate navigation within the electronic document.
11. The Tribunal encourages hearing participants to file a Joint Book of Authorities for the sake of efficiency and to avoid duplication. If the hearing participants cannot prepare a Joint Book of Authorities, all possible efforts should be made to ensure that cases provided by one hearing participant are not duplicated by the other hearing participant(s). At the very least, the hearing participants must exchange indexes for their respective Books of Authorities prior to filing them.
12. Each Book of Authorities must include a cover page indicating the party or applicant filing the documents. For a Joint Book of Authorities, the cover page should specify that it is being filed jointly. 

Books of Documents

13. If the parties intend to rely on documents as evidence, a Common Book of Documents must be jointly prepared and filed. The Tribunal reminds parties to include in the Common Book of Documents all documents expressly cited in their respective expert reports. These reports, as well as the documents cited within, should be exchanged prior to the completion of the Common Books of Documents.
14. The Common Book of Documents must be submitted electronically using the Tribunal's E-Filing application, unless otherwise directed by the Tribunal. 
15. The Common Book of Documents must include a table of contents. If the Common Book of Documents is separated into multiple volumes, each volume must have its own table of contents. The table of contents and each document should be a separate bookmark to facilitate navigation within the electronic document. 
16. The Common Book of Documents may be entered into evidence at the hearing in electronic form; a paper copy is not required. Counsel for the parties must include a joint undertaking at the beginning of each volume of the Common Book of Documents, stating that the volume will be entered as an exhibit (not on a per document basis) at the earliest convenient time. Additionally, the undertaking must include an agreement that every document contained within the Common Book of Documents may be relied upon by the Tribunal, whether or not referenced by counsel for the Parties at the hearing.
17. Any handwritten documents contained within the Common Book of Documents must be typed. All typed transcriptions of these documents must then be included in the Common Book of Documents, immediately after the original handwritten document.
18. To facilitate the expert evidence or oral submissions hearing, the parties must jointly or separately file a Condensed Book of Documents. Two double-sided paper copies of each Condensed Book of Documents will be necessary at an in-person hearing.
19. Each Condensed Book of Documents must contain the following:
    1. For an expert evidence hearing: any documents that parties or their respective experts intend to refer to at the hearing.
    2. For an oral submissions hearing: all documents referred to in the memoranda of fact and law, and any other documents counsel for the parties consider essential to the case.

Expert Reports

20. The Tribunal reminds parties that Rule 88 of the Specific Claims Tribunal Rules of Practice and Procedure, SOR/2011-119, lists the necessary elements of an expert report, and reads:

    Content of expert report
    88 An expert report referred to in this Part must be signed and dated by the expert and include the following information and documents:

    • (a) the name, business address and email address of the expert;
    • (b) the expert’s curriculum vitae and a statement indicating how their training, education and experience qualify them to produce the report;
    • (c) any matters addressed in the report that fall outside the expert’s area of expertise;
    • (d) an account of the nature of the request to prepare the report and of any directions the expert has received for its preparation;
    • (e) a summary of the opinions expressed in the report;
    • (f) the facts and assumptions on which the expert’s opinions are based;
    • (g) any caveats or qualifications that are necessary to render the report complete and accurate;
    • (h) identification of any literature or other materials that the expert relied on in support of the opinions expressed in the report; and
    • (i) if the report is prepared in response or in reply to another expert’s report, identification of the points of agreement and disagreement with that other report.
21. Expert reports must be submitted electronically using the Tribunal's E-Filing application, unless otherwise directed by the Tribunal. 
22. If an expert report includes a table of contents, the table of contents and each heading within it should be a separate bookmark to facilitate navigation within the electronic document.
23. Parties must provide three double-sided paper copies of any expert report they intend to enter as an exhibit at an in-person expert evidence hearing: one for the presiding Tribunal member, one for the witness and one for the Tribunal legal counsel.

Exhibits

24. Any document not previously filed that a party wishes to enter as an exhibit at a hearing (for example, enlargements of maps, maps to be marked and will-say statements) must be provided in both electronic and paper formats in accordance with the following requirements:
    1. Unless otherwise directed by the Tribunal, the parties must provide three double-sided paper copies (except for maps, which should be printed one-sided), at an in-person hearing: one for the presiding Tribunal member, one for the witness and one for the Tribunal legal counsel. 
    2. Where possible, the Tribunal requests that parties submit the electronic copy using the Tribunal's E-Filing application at least 48 hours prior to the hearing.
    3. Paper copies of any document entered as an exhibit at the hearing must be identical to the electronic version previously filed.
    4. If the document entered as an exhibit at the hearing was not filed before the hearing, the party who requested the exhibit must file the electronic version after the hearing; it must be identical to the paper version of the exhibit (a cover page is not necessary when filing it unless one was provided with the paper version). However, if the document was marked by a witness at the hearing, the Registry Officer will scan and upload the electronic version.

Filing Deadlines

25. The Books of Authorities or Joint Book of Authorities for hearings, with the exception of hearings on applications, must be filed no later than 15 days prior to the hearing, or as directed by the Tribunal.
26. For hearings on applications, the Books of Authorities or Joint Book of Authorities must be filed no later than 5 days prior to the hearing, or as directed by the Tribunal.
27. The Common Book of Documents must be filed no later than 15 days prior to the hearing, or as directed by the Tribunal.
28. The Condensed Books of Documents or Joint Condensed Book of Documents must be filed no later than 15 days prior to the hearing, or as directed by the Tribunal.
29. Expert reports must be filed no later than 120 days prior to the hearing, or as directed by the Tribunal.
30. Responding expert reports must be filed no later than 60 days prior to the hearing, or as directed by the Tribunal.
31. Reply or supplementary expert reports—which respond to responding expert reports—must be filed no later than 30 days prior to the hearing, or as directed by the Tribunal.
32. Deadlines for filing written submissions (or memoranda of fact and law) can be found in Practice Direction No. 16.
33. Requests to shorten any filing deadline must be submitted in writing to the Tribunal and state the reason(s) for the request.  

Honourable Victoria Chiappetta, Chairperson
Specific Claims Tribunal