Not Having Your Day in Court
The Edmonton Journal had a front-page article on July 16, 2018, about a Court of Queen’s Bench Announcement for Consultation about the mandatory Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) rule. The newspaper reporter wrote about the need for more court resources, and completely missed the point that the QB mandatory ADR rule is meant to nudge litigants to attempt to settle through ADR, and avoid trial. QB adopted a mandatory ADR rule in the new 2010 Rules of Court, (a combination of Rules 8.4(3)(a), 8.5(1)(a) and 4.16(2)) It requires litigants to attempt an approved ADR process before being allowed to schedule a trial. This rule reflects the public policy of encouraging settlement where possible, rather than trials in adversarial litigation. In February 2013, QB suspended enforcement of the mandatory ADR rule. The Court could not meet the spike in demand for Judicial Dispute Resolutions. JDR is a type of mediation provided by QB judges at no cost to litigants. Rather than simply direct litigants and their lawyers to the other ADR options readily available to them under the Rules, then-Chief Justice Wittmann decided to instead suspend the entire mandatory ADR rule until the Court has obtained sufficient Justices and resources to meet...