Filing Documents after Leave has been Granted or after Notice of Appeal as of Right has been Filed

After leave to appeal has been granted or a notice of appeal as of right has been filed, counsel will be required to file appeal documents. The procedures and timetable for filing these documents are explained below.

Appeal Procedure at the Supreme Court of Canada

The Court’s appeal procedure is governed by the Supreme Court Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. S-26, and the Rules of the Supreme Court of Canada.  

You must follow the Guidelines for Preparing Documents to be Filed with the Supreme Court of Canada (Print and Electronic) when preparing your appeal documents.  For information on appeal filing deadlines, please refer to the page on How to Calculate Deadlines for Serving and Filing Documents.

Links to some useful resources

Timetable and Hearing Date

After leave has been granted, you will receive a filing timetable that will include your tentative hearing date.

A firm hearing date will be set upon confirmation of the hearing by the Court. In the meantime, if you have any concerns about your tentative hearing date, you must contact a Senior Registry Officer of the Court Registry at 613-996-7771 or 613-996-7772 as soon as possible. Counsel are also required to advise the Registry if counsel expects that there will be applications for leave to intervene in the appeal.

Deliveries to the Registry

Documents are to be delivered to the West garage entrance of the Supreme Court of Canada building, unless you have fewer than four (4) boxes containing Court documents. These are to be delivered to the Registry. Please see the procedure on deliveries for more information.

Consequences of Missing Deadlines

If an appellant fails to serve and file a notice of appeal within the time set out in paragraph 58(1)(b) of the Act, a judge may dismiss the appeal as abandoned unless the time for serving and filing the notice is extended by a judge on a motion (Rule 65).

A respondent or an intervener who fails to file his or her factum within the time set out in Rule 36 or 37, as the case may be, may not present oral argument on the appeal unless a judge, on a motion, orders otherwise (Rule 71(3)).

Record of Court Appealed From

Although section 63 of the Supreme Court Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. S-26, indicates that the clerk of the court appealed from must transmit the record to the Supreme Court, the Registrar has asked counsel not to invoke this section. Section 63 can still be used, however, if counsel or the Court considers that the record is necessary for purposes of the appeal.