Message from the Chief Justice

Credit: Balfour

Hello, I’m Paul Crampton, Chief Justice of the Federal Court. It’s my great pleasure to introduce you to our new website.

The Federal Court occupies a special place in Canada's justice system. We are the country’s national, bijural and bilingual trial court.

We deal with cases in a broad range of areas of federal jurisdiction, including national security law, intellectual property law, maritime law, aboriginal law, and administrative law, which includes the vast area of immigration law.

The Court sits in cities across the country, from St. John’s to Vancouver to the three northern territories, and everywhere in between.

The Federal Court is committed to addressing two pressing challenges. The first is improving access to justice. The second is modernizing the Court to keep pace with technological change.

In the past few years, we have made significant strides on both these fronts. These are summarized in a progress report on our website that provides an update on the realization of our 2014-2019 Strategic Plan.

We have achieved this success by making connections and listening to what our stakeholders have to say. We have reached out to the bar, to law schools, and to the public, to learn what we can do better and then to innovate.

We are connecting, we are serious about the feedback we receive, and we are changing. Many of our Rules have been updated. We have introduced greater flexibility into our processes. Our courtrooms are now more modern and accessible.

And we have modernized many aspects of our work, including e-filing, e-courtrooms, video-conferencing, electronic assignment calendars, webcasts, and social media.

This is all in service of one goal: to better serve the public in the administration of justice.

As we near our 50th anniversary, I am pleased to announce the launch of the Federal Court’s new website. We have developed new ways for people to connect with us – be they lawyers, self-represented parties, the media, or the general public.

Our guiding goal has been to assist you to understand and stay abreast of the Court and its work. You will find much more helpful information, as well as new tools, including checklists, interactive forms, a procedural roadmap, a timelines calculator, and calendar of Hearings. And all within three clicks!

This website is the product of many peoples’ hard work and creativity. I am proud of what we have accomplished together.

I invite you to try out the new features, and send us your comments. And don’t forget to connect with us on Twitter.

Welcome to the Federal Court.