Update from the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador

Please find attached an updated notice from the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. The notice addresses the Court’s processes regarding urgent filings, the requirement to have documents witnessed and limitation periods.

We have also been advised by the Court that its drop boxes are not currently being used. The Court is only accepting urgent filings through email or fax as outlined in the notice issued on March 18, 2020.

Notice to the Profession and General Public

Update from the Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador: WASH Court – March 21st and 22nd, 2020

We have been asked by the Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador to circulate the following notice:

In an effort to avoid any technical difficulties during WASH Court this weekend, we have set up a teleconference number to be used by all parties who will be attending the WASH Court session which will start at 11 am on each day.

Counsel as well as police who have an individual in custody are expected to call into the teleconference and be ready to start court proceedings at 11am. Please note that if multiple participants call in at the same time, you may get a busy signal. If this happens, just wait a moment and try your call again.

For purposes of police who have an individual in custody, if you could please keep your phones on mute until your matter is called, it would be appreciated as any background noise can interfere with the court’s recording.

Please note that this is a trial run of this procedure and is currently in place for this weekend only. We will be in touch again if we decide to continue to this method beyond this weekend.

The phone number to call to join the teleconference is 1-855-342-6455. The conference ID to be used by all participants is 3212164.

Lastly, for this weekend, WASH Court will be sitting in courtroom #5 as opposed to courtroom #7.

Update from the Department of Justice and Public Safety: Notice to the Profession regarding service of documents on Her Majesty in right of Newfoundland and Labrador

We have been asked by the Department of Justice and Public Safety to circulate the following notice:

Until further notice is provided, if you wish to serve documents related to child protection or adult protection matters, please contact Jacqueline Pelletier at jpelletier@gov.nl.ca to make arrangements.

If you wish to serve documents related to other civil matters on Her Majesty in right of Newfoundland and Labrador not related to Unified Family Court please contact either Philip Osborne at philiposborne@gov.nl.ca or Justin Mellor at jmellor@gov.nl.ca to make arrangements.

Website Updates

The Law Society wishes to advise members that we now have a dedicated page on our website which outlines all updates relating to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the legal profession. We have added an FAQ section that may help address any concerns you may have. To access the page, please follow this link: https://lsnl.ca/information-regarding-covid-19/
We remind you that Law Society staff are available to answer any questions you may have. Our directory can be found at: https://lsnl.ca/about-us/staff-directory/