After an appeal is heard, the Court of Appeal for Ontario may make its decision the same day or shortly afterwards, or may reserve judgment for up to several months.
The court’s decisions are usually given a citation, including the year and the number assigned to the judgment (e.g. 2016 ONCA 350). Reasons that are made available electronically on this website are posted on the day of their release. They can be found by searching for the release date or case name, or by using keywords.
Some decisions are not routinely posted on the court’s website, such as decisions about inmate appeals, motions in writing, or motions before a single judge. These decisions are not given a citation, but they are made available to the parties and can be obtained on request from the Court of Appeal Registry Office by contacting the general inquiry number at 416-327-5020 or toll free at 1-855-718-1756.
The court also posts the results of motions for leave to appeal in civil cases. These are listed by date, name, and motion number. Typically reasons are not given on leave motions.
Occasionally, after a decision is released, the court may post an addition (called an “addendum”) or substitute a released decision with a substituted corrected version of the decision on this website.
Decisions are posted by the Court of Appeal in the language in which they are written, although some publishers may have them translated into the other official language.
Note that when a decision is described as “by the court”, it means all three judges agree, and no single judge is the author. Their names are listed in order of seniority, based on the date of their appointment to the Court of Appeal. When a judgment (or an opinion, if there is more than one opinion) is listed as being by one judge, then that judge is the author and the others indicate whether they agree.