Update from the Estates List Users Committee

  • July 07, 2020
  • OBA Trusts & Estates Section, Estates List Users Subcommittee

Further to the Estates List Users Committee summary of May 4th, there are several additional procedural changes to the operations of the Ontario Superior Courts that affect estates practitioners:

Virtual Commissioning of Documents

On May 12, 2020, the COVID-19 Response and Reforms to Modernize Ontario Act, 2020 (the “Act”) was passed. Schedule 4 of the Act includes amendments to the Commissioners for Taking Affidavits Act that permit the creation of regulations to allow remote commissioning or notarizing of a document. While regulations are not expected to be issued before August of this year, the court will accept virtually-commissioned affidavits if they were sworn on or after March 16th, 2020.

For best practices, lawyers should refer to the Law Society of Ontario FAQ.

Submission of Probate Applications in Toronto

In Toronto, applications for Certificates of Appointment, once filed, are scanned and emailed to court staff who are working remotely. In order to streamline the review of probate applications, practitioners who are filing probate applications in Toronto are asked to submit a copy of the application by email, in accordance with the following process:

  1. Once the application has been accepted and filed with the Court office, court staff will provide the submitting party with the receipt of taxes (when applicable), court file number and instructions to send a colour scanned copy of the documents by email to toronto.estates@ontario.ca.
  2. Practitioners should send one email per estates file, and include the following:
    1. The Court file number;
    2. Proof of payment; and
    3. A separate PDF for each form/document. Documents that contain exhibit markings on the back (e.g. Will, Notice of Application) are required to be included.