Powers before evidence on merits presented
551.3 (1) In performing their duties before the stage of the presentation of the evidence on the merits, the case management judge, as a trial judge, exercises the powers that a trial judge has before that stage in order to assist in promoting a fair and efficient trial, including by
(a) assisting the parties to identify the witnesses to be heard, taking into account the witnesses’ needs and circumstances;
(b) encouraging the parties to make admissions and reach agreements;
(c) encouraging the parties to consider any other matters that would promote a fair and efficient trial;
(d) establishing schedules and imposing deadlines on the parties;
(e) hearing guilty pleas and imposing sentences;
(f) assisting the parties to identify the issues that are to be dealt with at the stage at which the evidence on the merits is presented;
(g) subject to section 551.7, adjudicating any issues that can be decided before that stage, including those related to
(i) the disclosure of evidence,
(ii) the admissibility of evidence,
(iii) the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
(iv) expert witnesses,
(v) the severance of counts, and
(vi) the separation of trials on one or more counts when there is more than one accused, and
(h) ordering, in each case set out in subsection 599(1), that the trial be held in a territorial division in the same province other than that in which the offence would otherwise be tried.
Hearing
(2) The case management judge shall order that a hearing be held for the purpose of exercising the power referred to in paragraph (1)(g).
Power exercised at trial
(3) When the case management judge exercises the power referred to in paragraph (1)(g), he or she is doing so at trial.
Decision binding
(4) A decision that results from the exercise of the power referred to in paragraph (1)(g) is binding on the parties for the remainder of the trial — even if the judge who hears the evidence on the merits is not the same as the case management judge — unless the court is satisfied that it would not be in the interests of justice because, among other considerations, fresh evidence has been adduced.
Annotations
- Part XVIII.1