Overview of Appointments of Associate Judges of the Federal Court and the Tax Court of Canada

FEDERAL COURT

The Commissioner of Federal Judicial Affairs is seeking applications from barristers or advocates who are members in good standing of any provincial or territorial Bar, and who have extensive professional experience spanning at least ten years, to fill Associate Judge vacancies that might open up at any time at the Federal Court.

Associate judges are appointed under the Federal Courts Act (s. 12). They are full judicial officers and exercise many of the powers and functions of Federal Court judges. Their authority includes mediation, case management, practice motions (including those that may result in a final disposition of the case, regardless of the amount in question), as well as trials of actions in which up to $100,000 is claimed (see Rules 50, 382, and 383 to 387 of the Federal Courts Rules).

For more information, please visit Associate Judge Positions in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver (Federal Court).

TAX COURT OF CANADA

The Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1 created the office of associate judge for the Tax Court of Canada (TCC) and specified that the powers, duties and functions of associate judges shall be determined by the rules of the Court. The TCC’s Rules Committee has approved proposed rules governing associate judges. These rules are in the process of being prepared for consideration by the Governor in Council.

The proposed rules state that an associate judge has all the powers of a judge. This is meant to provide broad jurisdiction to associate judges at the outset of their introduction to the Court.

TCC associate judges will be assigned duties by the Chief Justice such as: Informal Procedure matters; Case management and settlement conferences; motions; simple or uncontested applications; status or show cause hearings, and other matters such as taxation of costs, and duty judge functions.

Associate judges may be assigned to other matters not described above. Given that associate judge positions are new for the TCC, their duties and assignments will be an evolving process that will be informed by the Court’s needs. Associate judges are expected to reside in Ottawa and travel across Canada as assigned by the Chief Justice.

For more information, please visit Associate Judges, December 21, 2022 (tcc-cci.gc.ca).