As of January 1, 2017, Rule 22 of the New Brunswick Rules of
Court for 'Summary Judgment' was repealed and replaced.
Rule 22 for Summary Judgment has now been transformed from a means
to weed out unmeritorious claims to a significant alternative model
of adjudication.
When faced with a lawsuit, a Summary Judgment Motion is an
important method to employ to dismiss a meritless allegation or
defence, without incurring the cost of proceeding to a Trial.
As has always been the case, if one party can show early in
the litigation and before Trial that there does not exist any
genuine issue or dispute with regard to the facts, the Court will
rule on the merits of the case.
It is no secret that the costs for a Trial can be prohibitive
for all parties involved. The Canadian justice system is
aware of this new reality and it is for this reason that across
Canada we are seeing a shift in ways to increase access to justice
in order to avoid the often unaffordable cost of a
