The Court of King's Bench (the "Court") is
launching a new streamlined trial process beginning January 1,
2024, which entirely replaces the seldom-used summary trial
process. Streamlined trials will hopefully provide a faster,
cheaper path to resolve civil actions not requiring a full trial.
Borrowing from the arbitration world, the procedure emphasizes
reliance on written rather than oral evidence, with significant
flexibility to customize the procedure to the specific dispute.
Background
The new streamlined trial process reflects considerable work by
the Alberta Rules of Court Committee to find a workable model to
replace the existing summary trial process. Two aspects of the
summary trial process were particularly unattractive to litigants:
(1) the respondent could wait until the eve of the summary trial
before objecting to the process, after the applicant had incurred
the expense to prepare for the trial, and (2) the judge could
decline to make a ruling at the
