New Practice Directive from the Court of Appeal

Counsel may prepare in any civil case a Condensed Book, to assist the Court of Appeal during the oral hearing of the appeal.

The Condensed Book may contain documents essential to the hearing, including those excerpts from the evidence, exhibits and authorities to be referred to by the party in its argument. It should be indexed in a way that permits the Court to locate the documents referred to in the party’s factum.

Counsel shall prepare a sufficient number of copies of the Condensed Book for the division hearing the appeal and for all parties to the appeal. The Condensed Books for the panel shall not be filed in the Registry but handed to the court clerk at the commencement of the appeal.

Any extracts of transcripts, affidavits, exhibits or authorities included in a Condensed Book shall include only as much material as is required to understand the context of the key portions of the extract.

The covers of the Condensed Book of the appellant shall be buff in colour, those of the respondent green and those of an intervenor shall be yellow.

This article was published in the June 2007 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2007, all rights reserved.