New West provincial court has postponed all family case conferences, child protection case conferences and small claims and trial conferences on Monday, March 16.
The decision was announced online on Sunday, March 15 and was made due to the spread of the COVID-19 strain of the coronavirus.
“In order to protect the health and safety of all court users and to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the provincial court is reducing court operations while ensuring meaningful access to the court for those with urgent matters until further notice,” the post stated.
In addition to the postponements, all judicial bail hearings were to use video and teleconferencing instead of in-person appearances, according to the post.
Judges were told to decide if previously scheduled family, child protection, small claims and criminal trials would proceed after hearing submissions on Monday and Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the scheduling and hearing of in-custody criminal trials and sentencings is slated to go ahead unless the court adjourns or one of the parties puts forward an application, according to the post. For in-custody sentencings and trials, the parties are encouraged to apply for video conferencing.
Traffic, ticket and bylaw matters between Wednesday and May 4 are adjourned and will be rescheduled, the post stated.
In-custody criminal trials and sentencings, urgent criminal matters, urgent family and child protection matters, urgent small claims matters and search warrants and production order applications are expected to proceed, according to the post.
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