Civil procedure in BC vs ON

[99problems]

I am currently a 3L in Ontario, but my articling (and naturally my bar exam) will be in Vancouver. For my final semester, I have taken Civil Procedure 2. I am aware that the civil procedure rules in Ontario are different from those in BC, but I don't know to what extent. I am wondering whether I should drop my course and take something else instead. That said, if the differences are minimal, I prefer to keep it.

[BlockedQuebecois]

Civil procedure is the kind of thing most students will need to look up for the bar exam regardless of whether they have taken civ pro II, and it's also the kind of thing articling students and young lawyers should look up regardless of how confident they are they know it because the consequences of failing to follow the rules can easily prejudice your client. 

If you're taking civ pro II because you want to memorize a bunch of the rules, it's a waste of time regardless of where you want to practice (although it's definitely more of a waste of time if you're going to practice in a different jurisdiction). 

If you're taking civ pro II because you want to learn about different ideas related to civil procedure—such as how to protect your client's interest in a property from a bona fide purchaser for value or how litigation can be funded (including models both legal and illegal in your jurisdiction)—then it's worthwhile. Those ideas will be present in any common law jurisdiction, even if the terminology or rules are different (a certificate of pending litigation is called that in Ontario, but it's called a certificate of lis pendis in Alberta; BC is the wild west of contingent fee arrangements, in Ontario you can't take family matters on a CFA; etc). 

[AnomanderRake]

On 11/27/2021 at 3:24 PM, BlockedQuebecois said:

Civil procedure is the kind of thing most students will need to look up for the bar exam regardless of whether they have taken civ pro II, and it's also the kind of thing articling students and young lawyers should look up regardless of how confident they are they know it because the consequences of failing to follow the rules can easily prejudice your client. 

If you're taking civ pro II because you want to memorize a bunch of the rules, it's a waste of time regardless of where you want to practice (although it's definitely more of a waste of time if you're going to practice in a different jurisdiction). 

If you're taking civ pro II because you want to learn about different ideas related to civil procedure—such as how to protect your client's interest in a property from a bona fide purchaser for value or how litigation can be funded (including models both legal and illegal in your jurisdiction)—then it's worthwhile. Those ideas will be present in any common law jurisdiction, even if the terminology or rules are different (a certificate of pending litigation is called that in Ontario, but it's called a certificate of lis pendis in Alberta; BC is the wild west of contingent fee arrangements, in Ontario you can't take family matters on a CFA; etc). 

I feel the need to defend my province. There are restrictions on taking family matters on a CFA in BC too. You need to get the court to approve them, basically. 

[BlockedQuebecois]

Sure, but court approval under s. 67(5) is trivially easy to get—all you need to do is show the fee is reasonable,—and even if you didn't require prior approval, the client would have the right to challenge the CFA post-hoc if the fee was not reasonable. Getting prior court approval isn't a real restriction.

The real restriction is that you can't take them on matters involving custody or access issues. I didn't mention those restrictions because it seemed unnecessary in a glib parenthetical comment. 

Edited November 29, 2021 by BlockedQuebecois