Are conventional civil trials, complete with full oral testimony and cross-examination, a thing of the past in Alberta? This is the question that UAlberta Law Professor Barbara Billingsley tackles in her new article in the latest edition of the Alberta Law Review (Vol. 55, No. 1).
In "Hryniak v Mauldin Comes to Alberta", Prof. Billingsley focuses on the landmark outcome of the aforementioned 2014 Supreme Court of Canada case. In Hryniak v. Mauldin, presiding Justice Andromache Karakatsanis outlined a "roadmap" for future civil trials which, Billingsley argues, represent a culture shift away from traditional trials.
"In Hryniak, Justice Karakatsanis expressed the Supreme Court's concern that, because of the time and expense involved in conventional civil trials, in many cases a traditional trial is no longer a practical means of resolving civil disputes," she said.
"The "culture shift" she advocated for requires litigants, counsel and judges to recognize that a traditional trial, along with the attendant pretrial disclosure steps, is not always necessary to fairly and justly resolve a civil dispute."
Billingsley concludes that while it is too soon to determine what the legacy of Hryniak v Mauldin will be in Alberta, the decision has already had a profound effect on the province's courts, both in terms of their embrace of the Supreme Court's call for a culture of proportionality in litigation procedure and the prevailing atmosphere of uncertainty about the standard which litigants should apply in assessing the likelihood of successfully advancing or defending a summary judgement application.
"The spectre of a conventional trial, while imperfect in many ways, has historically been a reliable motivator and touchstone by which parties could plan and evaluate their litigation strategies," Billingsley explained.
"This new approach to summary judgment and to proportionality has displaced this touchstone and, to date, Alberta law has not replaced it with a tangible alternative."
The latest issue of the Alberta Law Review is available online here.