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Criminal Injuries Compensation
Legal Guide
Ch.11 Service and Filing of Documents (01 January 2015)- Overview
- Service of Documents by Parties
- Service of Notice of Hearing
- Filing of Documents
1. Overview
Documents are of course integral to the conduct of any legal proceeding, and include procedural communications such as letters, copies of procedural documents (eg. applications) and notices of motions (as well as documentary evidence - see the chapter "Evidence").
There are no laws or Board Rules setting out what documents have to served on other parties, and when they have to be served - however Rule 3.4 provides that when a document is communicated (ie. served) on the Board, the Board MAY require the party sending it to also serve copies to the other parties or participants prior to the matter being addressed by the Board.
The same Rule applies to non-written communications made to the Board, in which case the Board MAY require the party doing the communicating to also serve "notice" of the communication to the other parties or participants prior to the matter being addressed by the Board. This situation shuld be rare, and presumably giving notice of a verbal communication would require reducing the communication into writing.
All communications from represented parties should come from theirrepresentatives. Board staff will "generally" communicate with a party through their representative [Rule 3.4].
2. Service of Documents by Parties
Service of notices and documents to other parties may be made personally or by registered mail to the latest address filed with the Board [CVCA s.15(1)]. The Board may also order "any other method of service" as appropriate [CVCA s.15(3)
(in court this is known as "substituted service"). Such an order could be obtained by motion (see the chapter "Motions").
Mail service is deemed effective the third day after mailing, except where a party - acting in good faith - did not receive it until a later date "through absence, accident, illness or other cause beyond the person's control" [CVCA s.15(2)].
The Board's service rules are very simplified versions of service rules used in the courts. For a review of the Small Claims Court service rules, which may provide useful background in difficult service situation, see this Isthatlegal.calink:
Small Claims Court (Ontario) Legal Guide, Ch.6: Service of Documents
3. Service of Notice of Hearing
This issue is very important because service of a Notice of Hearing is the main way that the Board "defines" who is a party (see the discussion under "Who are the Parties?" in the chapter "Parties").
A Notice of Hearing is served by the Board in any of the following manners [Rule 2.3]:- personal delivery,
- first class prepaid regular mail,
- registered mail,
- courier with proof of service,
- fax with proof of service.
Service on a party's legal representative is adequate service [Rule 3.4].
4. Filing of Documents
Documents to be filed with the Board may be delivered [Rule 4.1(1)]:- directly to the Board's offices,
- to the Board during a hearing,
- regular, registered, certified or priority post mail,
- fax,
- courier,
- otherwise as the Board may permit.
When briefs (ie. collections) of documents or legal authorities (ie. cases and extracts from legal texts) are to be filed, three copies are required [Rule 4.1(2)].
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