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Creating and Implementing Decision Templates

A checklist for “The Preparation, Citation and Distribution of Canadian Decisions”

(Canadian Citation Committee, 2009)

This checklist is intended to assist court personnel in the creation and implementation of a decision template that complies with the Canadian Citation Committee 2009 guidelines adopted by the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) for the preparation of decisions (the “Preparation Guidelines”), available at http://www.cjc-ccm.gc.ca/cmslib/Committee/JTAC/JTAC-Consolidation-of-Standards-2009-04-02-E.pdf.

The present document is not a restatement of the Preparation Guidelines but rather a quick reference tool that focuses on key aspects related to the creation and implementation of decision templates. It also provides a few tips for the proper formatting and handling of decision files. The checklist contains two types of statements illustrated by the following bullets: Recommended practice; Practice that should be avoided.

General Notes and Tips

Visual Layout The visual signature of decisions is left at the court’s discretion. The examples provided in the Preparation

guidelines are not meant to recommend specific visual layout.

Labels Key elements of information in a decision are identified by consistent and meaningful labels (“Citation”,

“Date”, “Counsel”, etc.). These labels may differ from those recommended in the guidelines.

Formatting techniques The template contains pre-defined styles for numbered paragraphs, headings, lists, citations and other

elements that are often used when preparing a decision. Using styles is the most effective way to ensure proper and consistent formatting.

Users of the template are trained to properly use features and tools of the word-processing application that will allow for the proper formatting of paragraphs, lists and tables. For instance, to keep headings on the same page as their first following paragraph, the “keep with next” paragraph attribute is used instead of typing multiple empty carriage returns until the heading appears on the next page. Proper formatting ensures stability when the document is converted in other formats such as PDF or HTML.

When users of the template edit decision documents, the word-processing application is set to display formatting markup, a feature that is typically represented by the “¶” symbol in the software’s menus. This markup allows users to see more precisely what formatting features are actually embedded in the text by the word-processing application.

Manual formatting is avoided, including the use of multiple space or tab characters to align text, or the use of empty carriage returns to add space between paragraphs.

Decision’s Heading

The decision’s heading is the first page of the decision. No cover page, warning, notice or other information precedes the decision’s heading.

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Decision identifiers The first elements appearing at the very top of the decision are the name of court, citation, date of decision,

docket and style of cause, in that order.

Court Name The court name may contain related information such as the court’s coat of arms, jurisdiction, judicial district

or division, as local rules and practices may require.

Citation This element is preceded by the label “Citation:”. Preparing a case name is recommended as it favors consistency between various publishers of the case. The

Preparation Guidelines contains a quick summary of applicable case naming guidelines at section 3.2.1. A new neutral citation is assigned to each new decision. More specifically:

o Supplementary reasons such as “addendums”, “endorsements” or decisions on costs are considered to be new decisions and are assigned a new neutral citation number;

o A corrected decision is assigned the same neutral citation number as the erroneous decision it replaces. o Different linguistic versions of a decision bear the same neutral citation number.

The last element of the neutral citation is a number and as such is not to be preceded by zeros or contain non-numerical characters.

Date of Decision This element is preceded by the label “Date:”. The date is represented by eight digits in ISO format, preferably with separators between the year, month and

day (yyyy-mm-dd).

Docket Number This element is preceded by the label “Docket:”. Multiple docket numbers are separated by semi-colons (; ). The registry location is added after the docket number when the court’s docket numbering system does not

prevent two or more registry locations of this court from assigning the same docket number. This element is preceded by the label “Registry:”.

Style of Cause This element is preceded by the label “Between” or “In the matter of”.

Notices When applicable, translation, publication restriction or correction notices are inserted immediately after the

style of cause.

Translation Notice This element is placed between square brackets and contains a short phrase denoting that the document is a

translation or alternative linguistic version.

Publication Restriction Notice This element is preceded by the label “Restriction on publication:”. The notice provides information about the content, scope and duration of the publication ban so that it can be

complied with without having to check the court record (see examples in CJC’s “Publication Restriction Notice” available at http://www.cjc-ccm.gc.ca/cmslib/general/Publication%20Notices%20EN.pdf).

The publication restriction notice does not simply refer to the applicable statutes or the existence of an order without providing details about the specific restriction.

Correction Notice This element is preceded by the label “Corrected decision:” or “Amended decision:”. The notice informs readers that the current document is a new version of a previously distributed decision and

that the erratum (or an explanation of the corrections made) is appended at the end of the decision. It also contains the correction’s release date.

Releasing a corrected version without any indication of the changes is avoided.

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Other elements When a decision contain elements that are not described in the Preparation Guidelines, they can be placed

anywhere in the decision, after the decision identifiers described above. Appendices, cover and backing sheets are located at the very end of the document.

Name(s) of judge(s) This element is preceded by any consistent label such as “Judge:”, “Before:” or “Coram:”.

Case Origin When applicable, this element is preceded by “On appeal from”, “On judicial review from” or “Supplementary

reasons to”. A short statement is provided, which includes the name of the court or tribunal that rendered the appealed or

reviewed decision, as the case may be, as well as the earlier decision’s identification elements such as its neutral citation or date, docket number and parallel citations.

Reasons

This element is preceded by any consistent label such as “Judgment”, “Reasons for Order” or “By the Court:”. The reasons may include a table of contents, subtitles and notes. When the decision contains multiple

opinions, the order of the opinions is at the court’s discretion.

Paragraphs Paragraphs are numbered in square brackets, with only one sequence of numbers from the beginning to the

end of the reasons. When lists or other numbered components are found within paragraphs, they follow a different numbering scheme.

Numbered paragraphs that are not part of the reasons such as those appearing in an appendix follow a numbering scheme that is different from the reasons’.

Citations to Authorities It is good practice to insert the citation to a legal authority within the body text, between parentheses, instead

of using footnotes. When citing a case, its neutral citation immediately follows the case name, before any parallel citation (see

also the CJC’s “Use of Neutral Citation for Case Law” available at http://www.cjc-ccm.gc.ca/cmslib/general/Practice%20Direction%20Neutral%20Citation%20EN.pdf).

When referring to a legislative provision, its full citation is given when first citing it, including its title. When citing consolidated legislation, it is best practice to use the following format: [cited legislation] (as

amended to [last amending statute]).

File Handling

Filename To ensure that the filename is unique for a decision, the file is named after its neutral citation, without spaces

(e.g. 2008skqb24.doc). In the filename, the number can be zero-filled to facilitate sorting (e.g. 2008skqb0024.doc), but these preceding zeros are not part of the neutral citation itself.

The suffix “cor” is added to the filename when the file contains a corrected decision (e.g. 2008skqb24cor.doc).

Non-textual Content Multimedia files are inserted in the decision’s file at the desired location, wherever possible. External objects such as spreadsheet extracts are not inserted with live links to the source file, in order to

prevent unwanted dissemination of information that may be hidden in the source file.

Introductory Comment for Decision Templates

These documents are primarily intended to illustrate how templates may look different while

being fully compliant with the Preparation guidelines, available at http://www.cjc-

ccm.gc.ca/cmslib/Committee/JTAC/JTAC-Consolidation-of-Standards-2009-04-02-E.pdf. They

were prepared based on the visual signatures of two Canadian courts. They may be used directly

but courts and tribunals are encouraged to adapt them and create templates designed for their

specific needs.

IN THE [Full name of court]

[Trial / Appeal] DIVISION

JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF [Name of district]

Citation: [Case Name], [Year] [Court ID] [Number]

Date: [yyyy-mm-dd]

Docket: [Court file number]

Between: [Full Name],

[Plaintiff / Petitioner / Appellant]

- and -

[Full Name],

[Defendant / Respondent]

[Translation notice]

(DELETE THIS ELEMENT IF NOT APPLICABLE)

Restriction on Publication:

[Publication ban notice]

(DELETE THIS ELEMENT IF NOT APPLICABLE)

Corrected Decision:

[Corrected decision notice]

(DELETE THIS ELEMENT IF NOT APPLICABLE)

Before: Justice [Full name]

On Appeal From / On Judicial Review From / Supplementary

Reasons To: [Case origin]

Date(s) of hearing: [Month Day, Year]

Appearances:

[Full Name] - for [Full Name]

[Full Name]

- for [Full Name]

1

[Judge's family name], J.

[Subtitle]

[1] [Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing

elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet

dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim

veniam]

[Subtitle]

[2] [Reasons]

1. [Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer

adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh

euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna

aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim

veniam];

2. [Numbered list item].

[3] [Reasons]:

“[Citation]”

[4] [Reasons]

(a) [Alphabetical list item];

(b) [Alphabetical list item].

[Subtitle]

[5] [Reasons]

____________________________

[Full name of judge], [J.C.Q.B. / J.S.C.]

[FULL NAME OF COURT]

Citation: [Case Name], [Year] [Court ID] [Number] Date: [yyyy-mm-dd] Docket: [Court file number]

Registry : [Location]

Between: [Full Name],

[Applicant / Plaintiff / Petitioner / Appellant]

And

[Full Name],

[Defendant / Respondent]

Restriction on Publication [Publication ban notice]

(DELETE THIS ELEMENT IF NOT APPLICABLE)

Corrected Decision [Corrected decision notice]

(DELETE THIS ELEMENT IF NOT APPLICABLE)

[On Appeal From / On Judicial Review From / Supplementary Reasons] To: [Citation to related decision]

(DELETE THIS ELEMENT IF NOT APPLICABLE)

Before: The Honourable Justice [Full Name]

Appearances:

[Full Name], solicitor for the [Applicant / Plaintiff / Petitioner / Crown]

[Full Name], solicitor for the [Defendant / Respondent / Intervener / Accused]

Place and date(s) of hearing: [City], [Province or territory] [Month Day, Year]

Place and date of judgment: [City], [Province or territory] [Month Day, Year]

[Keywords]

Statutes Referred to: [Title], [Citation].

Page 2

Cases Referred to: [Case Name], [Neutral citation]; [Case Name], [Neutral citation].

[Judge's family name], J.:

[Subtitle]

[1] [Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam

nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam]

[2] [Paragraph]:

[Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam]

[Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam]

[3] [Paragraph]

a) [Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam];

b) [List Alpha].

[4] [Paragraph]

1) [Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam];

2) [List Num].

[5] [Paragraph]

____________________________ [[Judge's family name] J.