Have Judicial Robes, Can Travel: Judges Can Sit In Other Provinces

Judges of the Superior Court of Ontario may sit and make decisions in courtrooms in other provinces when the Ontario court has jurisdiction over the parties and issues in the proceeding, the Ontario Superior Court held recently: Parsons v. The Canadian Red Cross Society, 2013 ONSC 3053. This decision clarifies that the court’s inherent jurisdiction to control its own process includes the power to use its discretion in determining whether it is in the interest of justice to hold a hearing outside its home province.

This decision is important to class action practice, as it has become routine for courts in several provinces to hold joint hearings when class actions are proceeding in several provinces at once.