Family Justice

The Best Option for You

If You Go to Supreme Court

What is a summary trial?

A summary trial - also called a Rule 18A application - is a quicker and less expensive alternative to a full trial.

A full trial works best when you and the Defendant do not agree on important facts; a summary trial works best when you and the Defendant agree on the facts, but disagree on what the result should be based on those facts.

Like a full trial, a summary trial is intended to result in a final court order. Unlike a trial, you and the Defendant and your witnesses will usually not give oral evidence. Instead, you will provide your evidence to the judge in the form of written affidavits, prepared before the summary trial starts. The judge will review the affidavits and will (usually) make a final order based on the information you have given there - so it is very important that your affidavits are both thorough and detailed. (A judge at a summary trial may decide that it would be better to have a full trial and may refuse to make an order based on the information in the affidavits.)

You or the Defendant may apply for a summary trial at any time after the Defendant has filed a Statement of Defence in response to your Statement of Claim. (You may wish to request a Judicial Case Conference, before you apply for a summary trial, but you are not required to do so.)

To apply for a summary trial, you will first need to prepare a Notice of Motion (Form 55) and an affidavit or affidavits setting out the evidence the judge will need to make a final order.

If you are asking for a divorce, you will, in addition to any other affidavits, need:

• A Plaintiff's Affidavit (Form 132) setting out the facts of the case for the judge - for example, if your Statement of Claim includes:
  
  
  • custody and access, the affidavit must provide details about your children's current and proposed living arrangements and a summary of who has had custody to date.
  • child or spousal support, the affidavit must set out your reasons for needing support, specify the amount of support you are claiming, and any information you may have about the Defendant's income and assets
  • a division of property, the affidavit should list the family assets (car, house, etc.) and how much they are worth, and include a description of how you think the judge should divide the family property, and why it should be divided that way.
    
    
• A registrar's certificate. This is a form signed by registry staff to show the judge that they have checked your documents and that they are satisfied everything is procedurally correct. (See the Legal Services Society's on-line divorce self-help kit - Step 7 - for more information about the certificate and a blank certificate form.)
  
  
• A Child Support Affidavit (Form 133), describing how you and your spouse will continue to financially support your children.

A Child Support Affidavit is also required if you are not asking for a divorce, but you have dependent children and you are claiming child support.

The numbered forms are available on-line, through the Supreme Court's web site.

The evidence in your affidavits must be based on direct personal knowledge and must be thorough and detailed so that the judge can make the order you are asking for.

The forms for requesting a summary trial are the same as those required for requesting an interlocutory (interim) order. Forms and instructions for "self-represented litigants" (people who are applying to the court without a lawyer) are available on-line through the Legal Services Society's family law web site (click on "Online Self-Help Kits," then "How do I get an initial family order?," then choose the self-help kit for Supreme Court, and see the forms discussed in Steps 8 - 23.)

Unless you can come to a settlement beforehand, you and the Defendant will appear before a judge. The judge will then make a final order based on the evidence presented in your affidavits, unless he or she determines that:

• there isn't enough information in the affidavits to make a decision
• there is a serious conflict between the information you provided and the information provided by your spouse, which prevents the judge from determining the issues fairly without a full trial, or
• the issues and evidence are too complex to be dealt with at a summary trial.