Archives
The directives on this page have been superseded or replaced by subsequent directives published on the Ontario Court of Justice public website. They are included here for reference only.
- GENERAL
- CRIMINAL
- FAMILY
- PROVINCIAL OFFENCES
GENERAL
Expanded Surety Declaration Pilot Project Protocol, effective April 13, 2026
April 7, 2026
The Ontario Court of Justice is beginning a pilot project that allows parties to use an “Expanded Surety Declaration” (instead of the existing Form 12 Surety Declaration). The Expanded Surety Declaration sets out more detailed information for the Court about a proposed surety and is aimed at reducing parties’ reliance on viva voce evidence from proposed sureties in bail hearings. The Expanded Surety Declaration Pilot Project Protocol is being launched in ten locations across the province. For more information, see the Expanded Surety Declaration Pilot Project Protocol and the Expanded Surety Declaration Form.
Practice Direction regarding the Integrated Domestic Violence Court, effective, April 2, 2026
April 2, 2026
Effective April 2, 2026, criminal intimate partner violence cases with family law cases at the Ontario Court of Justice will be scheduled in the Integrated Domestic Violence Court at 10 Armoury St, Toronto. For more information, see Practice Direction regarding the Integrated Domestic Violence Court.
New Bail Practice Direction, effective June 1, 2026
March 30, 2026
The Court has issued a new practice direction governing bail hearings in the Ontario Court of Justice, which will come into effect June 1, 2026. The Practice Direction sets out the Court’s expectations for bail proceedings, and in particular addresses: filing materials, time targets for hearings, and identification of complex bail matters. For more information, please see Ontario Court of Justice Practice Direction Regarding Bail Hearings.
Jordan-Compliant Scheduling in Provincial Offences Act Matters Direction, effective March 30, 2026
March 25, 2026
This direction provides guidance to ensure matters are scheduled within the timelines required by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Jordan. This replaces the previous scheduling direction (last updated in 2022). For more information see the Jordan-Compliant Scheduling in Provincial Offences Act Matters Direction.
Provincial Offences Act Judicial Pre-Trial Practice Direction, effective March 30, 2026
March 25, 2026
This direction provides guidance to all participants to facilitate effective use of judicial pre-trials and ultimately to ensure matters proceed efficiently to trial and trial time is used effectively. For more information see the Provincial Offences Act Judicial Pre-Trial Practice Direction.
Oshawa Courthouse Streamlined Case Management Pilot Project Protocol, effective March 2, 2026
March 2, 2026
Effective March 2, 2026, the Ontario Court of Justice – Oshawa is beginning a Streamlined Case Management Pilot Project. The goal of streamlined case management is to create a more user-friendly and people-focused case management phase, in which administrative steps are conducted outside of the courtroom. For more information see the Oshawa Streamlined Case Management Protocol.
Written Consent Release Pilot Project Practice Direction, effective December 1, 2025
December 1, 2025
Effective December 1, 2025, the Ontario Court of Justice is beginning a pilot project that allows for out of Court written consent releases to be issued by Judicial Officers for individuals in bail Court or case management Court, who are seeking a straightforward bail release on consent of the Crown’s office. For more information, see the Written Consent Release Pilot Project Practice Direction.
Toronto Self-Represented Persons Court Pilot expands operations, effective November 17, 2025
November 17, 2025
Beginning November 17, 2025, the Ontario Court of Justice Toronto Self-Represented Persons Court Pilot expanded operations from 4 days a week to 5 days a week. For more information see the Self-Represented Person’s Court – Toronto Pilot Practice Direction – Ontario Court of Justice
North Bay Courthouse Streamlined Case Management Pilot Project Protocol, effective November 4, 2025
November 4, 2025
Effective November 4, 2025, the Ontario Court of Justice – North Bay is beginning a Streamlined Case Management Pilot Project. The goal of streamlined case management is to create a more user-friendly and people-focused case management phase, in which administrative steps are conducted outside of the courtroom. For more information see the North Bay Streaming Protocol.
Practice Direction regarding filing documents electronically in Toronto, effective October 14, 2025
October 1, 2025
Effective October 14, 2025, counsel and parties in family law and child protection cases in Toronto (47 Sheppard Avenue East or 311 Jarvis Street) are expected to file or request issuance of their documents electronically through the Ontario Courts Public Portal (Portal). The Public Portal replaces Justice Services Online, which will no longer be available for filings in Toronto as of October 3, 2025. For more information, please see Practice Direction regarding filing documents electronically in Toronto through the Ontario Courts Public Portal.
Appointment of new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective March 26, 2026
March 17, 2026
New Judges Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective February 26, 2026
February 18, 2026
New Judges Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new Regional Senior Justice of the Peace to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective April 2, 2026
February 18, 2026
New Regional Senior Justice of the Peace Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective January 29, 2026
January 20, 2026
New Judges Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective September 25, 2025
September 16, 2025
New Judges Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective August 13, 2025
August 6, 2025
New Judges Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new Regional Senior Justice to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective September 1, 2025.
July 2, 2025
New Regional Senior Justice Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective June 16, 2025
June 10, 2025
New Judges Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new justices of the peace to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective May 14, 2025
May 12, 2025
New Justices of the Peace Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
Appointment of new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective May 14, 2025
May 5, 2025
New Judges Appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice
CRIMINAL
- Expanded Surety Declaration Pilot Project Protocol – April 13, 2026
- Practice Direction: Bail Court Waiver of Appearance and Bring Forward Protocol – updated March 11, 2024
- OCJ Protocol Re Bail Hearings – Revised May 8, 2023
- COVID-19 – Ontario Court of Justice Protocol Re Bail Hearings – Revised April 4, 2022
- COVID-19 – Ontario Court of Justice Protocol Re Bail Hearings – Revised April 22, 2021
- COVID-19 – Ontario Court of Justice Protocol Re Bail Hearings – May 11, 2020
- Practice Direction – Toronto Self Represented Court Pilot – May 05, 2025
- Practice Direction – Enhanced Designations of Counsel – updated Jun 3, 2024
- Practice Direction – 12-Week Adjournment from First Appearance in Criminal Case Management Court for Counsel Matters – June 3, 2024
- Practice Direction – Enhanced Designations of Counsel – updated Nov 1, 2023
- Practice Direction – 12-Week Adjournment from First Appearance in Criminal Case Management Court for Counsel Matters – updated Nov 1, 2023
- Practice Direction – Enhanced Designations of Counsel – updated May 8, 2023
- Practice Direction Authorizing Alternate Form of Appearance where Enhanced Designation Filed – updated Jan 23, 2023
- Practice Direction Authorizing Alternate Form of Appearance where Enhanced Designation Filed – updated Apr 11, 2022
- Scheduling and Conducting of Virtual Criminal Case Management Appearances updated Nov 29, 2021
- Out of Court Adjournment of Matters where an Enhanced Designation of Counsel has been Filed – Pilot Projects – updated Oct 15, 2021
- Judge-led Intensive Case Management Courts – Sept 3, 2021
- COVID-19 Practice Direction Authorizing Alternate Form of Appearance where Enhanced Designation Filed – updated July 5, 2021
- Out of Court Adjournment of Matters where an Enhanced Designation of Counsel has been Filed – Pilot Project in Ottawa -Jan 28, 2021
- Criminal Case Adjournment Dates – Out-of-Custody Accused – March 16, 2020 to November 27, 2020 – Updated Nov 18, 2020
- Criminal Case Management Appearances on or after November 30, 2020 – Nov 18, 2020
- COVID 19 Practice Direction Authorizing Alternate Form of Appearance where Enhanced Designation Filed – updated Nov 16, 2020
- Additional Court Locations Commencing Virtual Criminal Case Management Appearances in Oct and Nov – Oct 22, 2020
- Additional Court Locations Commencing Virtual Criminal Case Management on Sept 21 – Sept 17, 2020
- Additional Court Locations Commencing Virtual Criminal Case Management Appearances on Sept 8 – Sept 2, 2020
- Scheduling and Conducting of Virtual Criminal Case Management Appearances – Aug 26, 2020
- Scheduling and Conducting of Virtual Criminal Case Management Appearances – Aug 20, 2020
- Province-Wide Implementation of Virtual Case Management Courts – Aug 19, 2020
- Waiver of Personal Attendance and Request for Adjournment – August 12, 2020
- Virtual Criminal Case Management Appearances in Kitchener and Ottawa – Aug 6, 2020
- COVID 19 Practice Direction Authorizing Alternate Form of Appearance where Enhanced Designation Filed – Aug 6, 2020
- Update regarding Criminal Case Management Appearances – July 28, 2020
- Criminal Case Management Appearances Dates – July 2, 2020
- Public Statement by Ontario’s three Chief Justices-National Day for Truth and Reconciliation-Sept 30, 2022
- Chief Justice Message re COVID-19 – March 18, 2022
- Message re COVID-19 – January 4, 2022
- Message re COVID-19 – December 20, 2021
- Message re COVID-19 – December 15, 2021
- Public Statement by Ontario’s three Chief Justices-Sept 30 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation-Sept 2021
- Ontario Court of Justice Notice-National Day for Truth and Reconciliation September 30, 2021 (Court Closure) – Sept 2021
- Message re COVID-19 – August 3, 2021
- Resumption of out-of-custody trials and preliminary inquiries as of May 25, 2021 – May 18, 2021
- Reducing out‐of-Custody Trials and Preliminary Inquiries between April 26 and May 21, 2021- updated May 4, 2021
- Adjournment of out-of-custody Trials and Preliminary Inquiries between April 26 and May 7, 2021-Apr 21, 2021
- Message re COVID-19 – April 8, 2021
- Message re COVID-19 – January 13, 2021
- Message re COVID-19 – December 13, 2020
- Message re COVID-19 – November 21, 2020
- Resumption of Criminal Trials and Preliminary Inquiries Nov 30, 2020 in additional locations – Nov 16, 2020
- Continuity of Court Operations in Thunder Bay using Remote Technology or at an Alternate Location – Nov, 6 2020
- Resumption of In-Person Criminal Hearings at Guelph (36 Wyndham Street South) – Oct 30 2020
- In-Person Criminal Hearings Temporarily Suspended at Guelph (36 Wyndham Street South) – Oct 21, 2020
- Criminal Trials and Preliminary Inquiries Resuming at Stratford on September 28, 2020 – Sept 25, 2020
- Criminal Trials and Preliminary Inquiries Resuming at Gore Bay, Orillia and Woodstock on Sept 16- Sept 15, 2020
- Delay in Resuming Criminal Trials and Preliminary Inquiries-Gore Bay Orillia Stratford Woodstock-Sept 11, 2020
- Resumption of Criminal Trials and Preliminary Hearings – Aug 26, 2020
- Resumption of Criminal Trials and Preliminary Hearings-CP Kenora Timmins Peterborough Burlington – Aug 6, 2020
- Criminal Trials and Preliminary Inquiries – Guelph – July 6, 2020
- Delay in Resuming Criminal Trials and Preliminary Inquiries – College Park and Guelph – July 4, 2020
- COVID 19 Notice to Counsel and the Public-Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice-updated July 2, 2020
- Resumption of Criminal Trials and Preliminary Hearings as of July 6, 2020 – June 17, 2020
- COVID 19 Notice to Counsel and the Public-Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice-updated June 1, 2020
- COVID 19 Notice to Counsel and the Public-Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice-updated May 22, 2020
- COVID 19 Notice to Counsel and the Public-Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice – May 11, 2020
- Scheduling of Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice – May 4, 2020
- Scheduling of Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice – March 28, 2020
- Message re COVID-19 – March 23, 2020
- Scheduling of Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice – March 20, 2020
- Scheduling of Criminal Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice – March 16, 2020
- Message re COVID-19 – March 15, 2020
- Judicial Criminal Pre-trial Best Practices – Sept 2015
- Remote Appearance Code of Conduct – April 28, 2023
- Revised Guidelines re Mode of Appearance – Criminal Proceedings – June 30, 2023
- Interim Guidelines re Mode of Appearance – Criminal Proceedings – updated Jan 14, 2023
- Clarifying the Mode of Counsel’s Appearance under the Interim Guidelines – October 7, 2022
- Interim Guidelines re Mode of Appearance for Ontario Court of Justice Criminal Proceedings – Mar 18, 2022
- Public Statement by Ontario’s three Chief Justices regarding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – Sept 30, 2023
- National Day for Truth and Reconciliation September 30, 2022 – Criminal Matters- Sept 2022
- Public Statement by Ontario’s three Chief Justices-National Day for Truth and Reconciliation-Sept 30, 2022
- Ontario Court of Justice Notice-National Day for Truth and Reconciliation September 30, 2021 (Court Closure) – Sept 2021
- Public Statement by Ontario’s three Chief Justices-Sept 30 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation-Sept 2021
- September 30, 2021 – Criminal Case Adjournment Dates
- Practice Direction Serving and Filing Criminal Court Documents – May 8, 2023
- Practice Direction-Serving and Filing Criminal Court Documents – Dec 1, 2022
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – emailing documents November 19, 2020
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – emailing documents June 17, 2020
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – emailing documents May 14, 2020
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – emailing documents March 28, 2020
FAMILY
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – September 25 2020
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – September 18 2020
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – September 11 2020
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – July 6 2020
- Notice to the Legal Profession and the Public – March 28 2020
- Notice to the Profession – March 20 2020
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice – August 29, 2023
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (March 18, 2022)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (January 4, 2022)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (December 20, 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (November 12, 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (July 30, 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (May 26, 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (effective May 4 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (April 21 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (April 8 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (April 7 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (January 14 2021)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (November 17 2020)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice – Stratford (September 25 2020)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (September 18 2020)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (September 11, 2020) Resumption of In-Person Hearings
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (August 10 2020)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (July 2 2020)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (June 17 2020)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (May 7 2020)
- Scheduling of Family Matters in the Ontario Court of Justice (March 28 2020)
PROVINCIAL OFFENCES
- Provincial Offences Act Matters – Revised May 10, 2022
- Resuming Guilty Pleas as July 6, 2020
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – Revised May 10, 2022
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – April 28, 2022
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – Revised September 1, 2021
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – March 31, 2021
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – January 21, 2021
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – December 23, 2020
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – Revised November 25, 2020
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and Public Revised – October 14, 2020
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and Public – Revised September 11, 2020
- COVID-19: Notice to Counsel Paralegals and Public – Revised September 2, 2020
- COVID-19-Notice to Counsel Paralegals and the Public – May 19, 2020
- Notice to Public – May 4 2020
- Notice to Public – March 23 2020
- Order pursuant to section 85 – August 14 2023
- Order pursuant to section 85 – January 10 2022
- Order pursuant to section 85 – August 10 2021
- Order pursuant to section 85 – March 31 2021
- Order pursuant to section 85 – January 21 2021
- Order pursuant to section 85 – November 25 2020
- Order pursuant to section 85 – September 10 2020
- Order pursuant to section 85 – March 15 2020