Criminal Appeals and Electronic Documents
Criminal appeals to the Court of Appeal for Ontario involve a lot of paper: · transcripts of lower court proceedings (most spanning multiple days or weeks of trial), · an appeal book, · a factum, · a book of authorities (sometimes multiple volumes) Five copies of each. The appellant must serve a copy of each on the Crown, three copies are to be filed with court, and counsel for the appellant will want to retain a copy. In today’s world, it makes sense that some of the printed material would be replaced by the filing of electronic documents. And file electronic documents appellate counsel must. In addition to filing all the requisite paper copies with court, in criminal appeals the appellant is required to order, serve and file with proof of service a searchable el...