[co-author: Graham Bowden - Articling Student]

The Alberta Rules of Court require parties to an action before the Alberta Court of King’s Bench to participate in some form of alternate dispute resolution process before they can attend trial.

On June 6, 2024, the Court indefinitely suspended its Judicial Dispute Resolution (JDR) program. The JDR program gave parties an opportunity to schedule and participate in a negotiation process facilitated by a Justice and attempt to resolve all or part of a claim without incurring the time and cost of a trial.

JDRs have historically been an important resource for litigants that cannot, or do not want to, pay to retain a private mediator to satisfy the pretrial dispute resolution requirement.

Despite the suspension of the JDR program, the Rules still require that parties complete an alternate dispute resolution process before trial under Rules 8.4(3)(a) and 4.16. This will now require parties to pay for a private mediation or, where circumstances warrant, apply to the Court to waive the requirement under Rule 4.16.

We will continue to monitor how the Court approaches its mandatory dispute resolution processes going forward.