A civil action can be a complicated affair due to various reliefs required pending action. Such issues are dealt by way of motions to the court. There are very stringent timelines and procedural requirements relating to hearing such motions of the parties. Civil litigation can be very costly affairs if the matter is not timely analyzed before taking the next step. One can feel a lost action even after winning at trial. It must be considered what is going to be spent to achieve what? The kind of procedures involved in each stage, negotiation techniques, mediation, settlement, consideration for summary judgment and a need to avoid expensive trial, indeed, advocates a need of an experienced lawyer. We have an experienced civil trial lawyer working in Brampton, Toronto, Mississauga, Milton, Orangeville, Newmarket and Oshawa.

Some of the key steps in a civil action are: filing a Notice of Action, statement of claim, statement of defence, making a counterclaim, defence to counterclaim, crossclaim, third-party claim, reply, etcetera. These are called pleadings. When are pleadings closed? The pleadings are closed when all the defendants have defended the action and the plaintiff has filed the reply or time to file a reply has expired and every defendant who is in default in delivering the defence in the action has been noted in default (1475707 Ontario Inc Operating as Action Electric Construction and Maintenance v. Foran, 2014 ONCA 830). Examination on Discovery is another important step before the matter is set for Pre-trial conference or a trial of the action. Generally, a draft discovery plan is required and should be agreed by all parties to proceed to examination for discovery. Discovery plan requires timeliness to exchange affidavit of documents, scope of examination and completion of examination for discovery. In an ordinary action, a party shall not conduct an oral examination for discovery for more than seven hours regardless of the number of parties or other persons to be examined, except with the consent of the parties or with leave of the court. In a simplified action, the limit is two hours (three hours effective January 1, 2020). Motions could be very effective tools to achieve interim or even a final result, like moving for a summary judgment motion, which may dispose of the action completely or partially, without the necessity of a trial. Preservation of rights of the parties pending action is achieved through motions like Certificate Pending Litigation, Injunction, Prohibition, Security for Costs, staying the action, etcetera. A timely consideration is required to achieve such results. An experienced civil litigation lawyer can effectively achieve these results. An experienced civil lawyer can deeply consider the cost-benefit analysis when marshalling these tools. Most importantly, considering a cost-benefit analysis at every stage of the litigation is an important factor an experienced civil litigation lawyer can consider, balancing what is to be achieved at what costs.

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