Court File and Parties

Citation: Chopak v. Patrick, 2020 ONSC 3506 Court File No.: DC 141/19 Date: 2020-06-04 Superior Court of Justice - Divisional Court - Ontario

Re: Chopak v. Patrick

Before: D.L. Corbett J.

Counsel: Andrew Rance, for the Applicant Mark Donald, for the Respondent

Case Management Endorsement

[1] This endorsement reflects a case management conference conducted by teleconference on May 27, 2020.

[2] This appeal from the decision of deputy Judge De Lucia of the Small Claims Court has been outstanding for over a year. The respondent is 85 years old. The appeal should proceed without further delay.

[3] The appeal shall proceed before a single judge of the Divisional Court for an estimated one day on July 30, 2020 by videoconference. The videoconference shall take place using ZOOM. The court will provide counsel with log-in details for the conference in due course, by email. This court considers that it should be possible to argue the appeal in half a day but has reserved a full day in light of the numerous issues of defamation law that counsel say are involved in the appeal.

[4] The court and counsel have set a schedule for exchange of all appeal materials and establishment of an electronic drop box. If any issues arise with this schedule that could impact on the return date of the appeal, counsel shall arrange a further case management teleconference.

[5] Counsel for the respondent shall establish an electronic drop box for all appeal materials and shall provide the court with the link and password for the drop box by July 16, 2020.

(a) All documents shall be uploaded to the drop box in pdf format.

(b) Documents should be labelled in a manner that identifies them clearly for the court so that it is not necessary to open the document to understand what it is. Pages should be numbered sequentially within each pdf. If this is not practical, given the current state of the documents, then individual documents should be uploaded to the drop box in pdf form, so that each document is clearly labelled, enabling the court to find documents quickly during the course of the hearing.

(c) Factums are to be filed in both Word and pdf versions. Where possible, the factums should contain hyperlinks for authorities and, if possible, hyperlinks to a "Factum Compendium", described below.

(d) Books of authorities containing the full text of authorities should not be uploaded to the drop box. However, citations to cases in the factums are to provide, if possible, a hyperlink to the online version of cases. The only exceptions to this principle are authorities not available online, such as excerpts from textbooks, foreign law, or Canadian decisions not reported online: these should be collected in a small brief of unreported authorities and filed electronically.

(e) Parties may file a "Factum Compendium" containing single pages or brief portions of cases cited, and brief portions of evidence from the record referenced in the factum, hyperlinked from the factum. Where portions of cases are included in a compendium, the title of proceedings and headnote should be included as well. Where portions of the record are included in a Factum Compendium, the first page of the document and identification of where it may be found in the record should also be provided. The only exceptions to this principle are authorities not available online, such as excerpts from textbooks, foreign law, or Canadian decisions not reported online: these should be collected in a brief of authorities and filed electronically.

(f) Each party shall file a counsel sheet setting out the name(s) of all counsel appearing at the hearing and the estimated time for submissions.

(g) The parties shall file their agreement on the disposition of costs, or, if the parties have not agreed as to costs, then each party shall file its bill of costs and costs outline and any brief supporting materials relied upon in respect to costs. The court does not open costs materials until the conclusion of the hearing.

(h) All parties are permitted to (but are not required to) file the following additional documents (in addition to documents permitted under the Rules):

(i) Factum Compendiums, described above; and

(ii) Compendiums for oral argument, containing excerpts of evidence and authorities to which counsel intends to refer in oral argument.

(i) All documents for use on the appeal are to be uploaded to the drop box by July 16, 2020, except that compendiums for oral argument, counsel sheets and costs materials may be uploaded by July 14, 2020.

[6] The court has endorsed its fiat on this endorsement this day; the unsigned version distributed to the parties today has the authority and effect of the signed version, a copy of which will be provided to the parties in due course after the suspension of ordinary court operations is lifted.

D.L. Corbett J.

Date: June 4, 2020