The following questions on registry practice and procedure have been asked by Registry staff, and members of the Bar throughout BC. The answers are formulated by Elizabeth Dunn, Registrar and Joanne Power, Manager of the Registrar Program, and are vetted by their panel of editors. The questions and answers are published in the Registrar’s Newsletter, distributed quarterly to BC Supreme Court Registries. If you have a question or comment, please direct it to Joanne Power at (250) 356-1492 or email jpower@galaxy.gov.bc.ca

Question
Do the Practice Directions of the Chief Justice apply to the Adoption Act proclaimed November 4, 1996? (Adoption Act)

Answer
A Practice Direction was issued by the Chief Justice on February 18, 1998. It replaced the earlier adoption Practice Directions.

Question
Has there been an increase in the exemption allowed to a judgment debtor when a writ of seizure and sale is being executed against them? (Court Order Enforcement Act, s.71)

Answer
Yes, the exemption allowance has been increased efffective 1 May 1998 and categorized as follows (B.C. Reg. #28/98):

Household goods: $4,000
Tools of the trade: $10,000
Motor Vehicle: $5,000 & $2,000 maintenance debtors
Equity in a home: $12,000 in the Victoria area and Greater Vancouver Regional District & $9,000 elsewhere in the Province

Plus all necessary clothing and all required medical aids (of a debtor or a dependant)

This increase also applies to Small Claims Rule 11(12) which allows an order of seizure and sale against a judgment debtor and exemptions allowed a bankrupt under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

Question
What options are open to a client when a lawyer has not delivered or sent a bill for services? (Legal Profession Act, s.83)

Answer
The client may apply to the Supreme Court by petition requesting an order for delivery of the bill pursuant to s.83 of the Legal Profession Act

Question
Can a party file a Notice of Hearing of Petition in the original registry and name as the place of hearing some other registry elsewhere in the Province? (Rule 10)

Answer
This is an interesting question because it is not specifically dealt with in the Rules, although the Rules do address the topic of the locations for trials and hearings of notices of motions. Rule 39(5) requires that a notice of trial be filed at the registry where the writ was issued but Rule 39(7) contemplates that the trial can be heard at another registry. Rule 44(14) requires that a motion be heard within the judicial district in which the proceeding was commenced but Rule 44(16) allows the registrar to grant leave for the hearing of the motion to take place in another judicial district.

Hearings of petition are put on the chambers list, which is dealt with by Rule 52(7). By necessary implication, that Rule is referring to the chambers list for that registry. As the notice of hearing of petition must be filed at the registry where the proceeding was commenced, the application must be entered on the chambers list for that registry.

In addition, Rule 64(13) provides relief to parties requiring a transfer.

Question
Whose responsibility is it to advise the other party that an order for divorce has been entered? (Rule 60B(51))

Answer
Unless the court otherwise orders, it is the responsibility of the party who enters the order for divorce. See Rule 60B(51).

Question
Does a “co-respondent” named in a divorce proceeding have the right to access the divorce file they are named in? (Rule 60(22))

Answer
The petitioner’s spouse and a person against whom a claim for relief is made in a divorce proceeding (see Rule 60B(7)) must be made a respondent and may search a divorce file. However a person named against whom relief is not claimed is not eligible to search the matrimonial file.

Question
What is the effect of the “Guideline” for completion of the application for probate memorandum issued in 1988 to registry staff? (Appendix C, Schedule 1, Item 20)

Answer
This memorandum was prepared by (then) Master Halbert when the flat filing fee for probate applications was replaced with a fee based on the value of the estate. The memorandum contains a number of references which are no longer relevant and should not be relied upon.

A more recent and comprehensive approach is in the Civil Documents Processing Manual, Volume III, prepared in November 1992 by the Business Analysis and Design Group of Court Services Headquarters. Tab B sets out the requirements for probate applications; Tab C sets out the requirements for Letters of Administration applications.

This article was published in the April 1998 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2006, all rights reserved.