Practice Direction No. 13

Settlement Conference

Notice of Amendment:
Effective January 14, 2025, Practice Direction No. 13 issued on October 12, 2018, is revoked and replaced by Practice Direction No. 13 found below.

1. The Tribunal has all the powers, rights and privileges that are vested in a superior court of record based on subsection 13(1) of the Specific Claims Tribunal Act, SC 2008, c 22, and a mandate to resolve matters in a just, expeditious and cost-effective manner. In an effort to resolve claims in the most expeditious and cost-effective manner possible, the Tribunal encourages the parties to claims currently before it to participate in settlement conferences at any stage of the proceedings. Below is a framework for the Tribunal’s facilitation of settlement conferences.
2. It is within the Tribunal’s discretionary authority to direct that the parties attend a settlement conference. The parties may also, by letter to the Tribunal, jointly request a settlement conference.
3. The settlement conference will be presided over by a Tribunal member other than the member presiding over the claim or another suitable person (including a judge, retired judge, a lawyer experienced in arbitration or a mediator) that is not assigned to hear the claim.
4. The person presiding over the settlement conference may require:
   1. Briefs, containing:
      • an agreed statement of issues, where possible, or separate statements of issues;
      • an agreed statement of facts or separate statements of facts;
      • an agreed list of documents on which the parties will rely for the purposes of the settlement conference or separate lists of documents;
      • the subject matter of any intended or obtained expert reports;
      • any expert reports intended to be relied upon by a party at the hearing; and
      • case law relied upon.
   2. The attendance of a person from each party with authority to enter a memorandum of understanding which provides a final settlement of the claim subject to any internal processes required to enter a binding agreement.
   3. Written submissions, not exceeding 20 pages including extracts from case authorities, for each party.
5. Where the parties cannot resolve their issues by the end of the settlement conference, the Tribunal may, if requested by the parties, stay the proceedings for a fixed period to permit the parties to continue to negotiate on their own. 
6. If, at any time during the stay of proceedings, the parties believe that the Tribunal may be of assistance, they are encouraged to contact the Tribunal to request a case management conference.

Honourable Victoria Chiappetta, Chairperson
Specific Claims Tribunal