The new Rules of the Court of Appeal of Quebec in Criminal Matters (“R.C.A.Q.C.M.”) come into force today, March 11, 2024. You can consult them by clicking on the following link: Rules of the Court of Appeal of Quebec in Criminal Matters.

It is now mandatory to send the Court office a PDF version of pleadings and certain documents already filed on paper (s. 13 R.C.A.Q.C.M.). For more information on this subject, please refer to the Clerk’s Practice Direction No. 7 entitled Transmission of the PDF File of Certain Pleadings, Briefs, Memoranda and Other Documents by Means of the Digital Office of the Court of Appeal (DOCA). 

Moreover, books of authorities must now be filed with the Court in PDF format, unless the clerk requires or authorizes one or more paper copies (s. 49 R.C.A.Q.C.M.). The procedure to be followed for this new method is set out in the Clerk’s Practice Direction No. 8 entitled Filing of the PDF File of Books of Authorities. 

It should be noted that all pleadings and documents filed or transmitted digitally to the Court of Appeal must be prepared in accordance with the rules set out in the Chief Justice’s Directive entitled Rules Respecting the Preparation of the PDF Files of Pleadings, Briefs, Memoranda, Books of Authorities or Any Other Document. A guide (only in French for the moment) is available to help you comply with these new rules.

In addition, subsequent to the coming into force of the new Rules of the Court of Appeal of Quebec in Criminal Matters, the following changes have been made to the clerk’s practice directions:

• The Clerk’s Practice Directions Nos. 5 and 6 have been repealed because their content has been incorporated in the new rules;
• The Clerk’s Practice Directions Nos. 3, 7 and 8 have been amended to reflect the changes resulting from the new rules; and
• The clerk has published two new practice directions:

- Clerk’s Practice Direction No. 9 entitled Method for Presenting Certain Applications in Criminal Matters; and

- Clerk’s Practice Direction No. 10 entitled Types of Files that are Legible by the Means Available to the Court of Appeal.

These practice directions are now available in the “Notices in criminal matters” section.