Amendments to Rules of Civil Procedure (O.Reg. 383/23)

  • December 19, 2023

On December 11, 2023, Ontario Regulation 383/23 was filed to amend the court rules for civil court proceedings.

The regulation updates requirements for appellate factums and references to the bond series used to calculate the discount and gross-up rates.

The regulation will come into force on January 1, 2024.

  1. replace the references to bond series V121808 in the discount rate and gross-up rate formulas with the successor bond series V80691347;
  2. replace the reference to bond series V121758 in the gross-up rate formula with the successor bond series V80691331;
  3. replace the references to the Bank of Canada’s Weekly Financial Statistics in the discount rate and gross-up rate formulas with reference to the Bank of Canada’s website;
  4. add a provision noting that for the purposes of the discount rate and gross-up rate, reference may be made to the rates published by the Ministry of the Attorney General on a Government of Ontario website;
  5. expand the existing certification statement for both the appellant’s and respondent’s appeal factums in the Court of Appeal and Divisional Court to require the certifier to
    1. confirm that the factum complies with the word and page limits set out in the rules or otherwise in a court order;
    2. disclose the number of words in the factum; and
    3. confirm that they are satisfied as to the authenticity of every authority cited in the factum;
  6. add a provision prescribing the word limit for appellate factums to be 9,200 words and the page limit to be 40 pages, except with leave of the court;
  7. add a provision specifying which parts of the appellate factum are to be counted in the word limit; and
  8. add a provision to stipulate that, for the purposes of the certification requirement for appellate factums, authorities published on a government website or by a government printer, on CanLII, on a court’s website, or by a commercial publisher of court decisions are presumed authentic, absent evidence to the contrary.

A summary of O. Reg. 383/23 is available on Ontario’s Regulatory Registry at: 23-MAG008.