How to Schedule a Civil Motion in Ontario Superior Court

Scheduling, serving and filing a motion in Ontario is a time intensive process, with different Regions employing different procedures and utilizing different ‘standard’ forms.

With that in mind, these are the general procedures that the offices of Michael’s Law Firm in Hamilton and Toronto employs to schedule a motion before the Superior Court of Justice in various regions.

Note that different procedures apply in other courts such as the Small Claims Court.

Michael’s Firms’ Standard Procedure for Scheduling and Filing a Civil Motion:

1. Determine, if applicable (i.e.Toronto), whether your motion may be heard by a Master, or must be heard by a Judge. You should consult the Rules of Civil Procedure to be sure.

2. Call the Civil Office of the Superior Court to obtain potential motion dates. Inquire as to any area specific steps that need be taken (or forms submitted) to schedule your motion for hearing.

3. Canvas available motion dates with the opposing side and select one.

4. If applicable (i.e. Toronto, Newmarket), submit the area specific motion requisition form to reserve that date, typically via the filing Portal.

5. Prepare your Notice of Motion with all attachments, including an Affidavit electronically, and you can see some instructions for that here.

6. Serve your Notice of Motion on all opposing parties (or their counsel, if represented).

7. Prepare an Affidavit of Service for your Notice of Motion, to prove you served your Notice of Motion on the other parties.

8. Canvas with the opposing parties (or their counsel) to determine whether they agree with some, all or none of the relief requested in the Notice of Motion.

9. File your Notice of Motion with the Court, along with the Affidavit of Service and pay the current motion fee (for the current fees, see this page) and to be safe, the completed Confirmation of Motion Form. All of this should be filed with the Court within 10 days of having scheduled your motion.

10. Email the Confirmation of Motion Form to the Court at least 5 business days prior to the hearing date.

11. Call or email the Court and verify that the motion has in fact been properly scheduled and is going forward.

By following the above steps, Michael’s Firm is able to ensure motions are properly scheduled for hearing and minimize the chances our motions get struck from the hearing list for non-compliance with the Rules.

Motion Scheduling in Toronto in 2026

The current process to schedule a civil motion in Toronto (ignoring further Case Center filing and hyperlinking requirements) requires the steps set forth below (generally in order):

1. Complete motion record (leaving blank date of hearing). This could also be done at step 6 with date, in which case step 7 is unnecessary.
2. Consult the Consolidated Practice Direction – Toronto Region re potential current procedure.
3. Select from one of 7 hearing options via Calendly to obtain potential hearing dates depending upon type of motion, whether before Judge or Associate Judge.
4. Attempt to coordinate dates with opposing.
5. Print Calendly responsive email to pdf for filing.
6. Depending on type of motion, complete a Requisition Form, perhaps one of the ones listed and linked on Consolidated Practice Direction – Toronto Region or perhaps one from a completely different court page.
7. Insert hearing date into Motion Record on 1st page, and also on 1st page of Notice of Motion (via pdf editing software).
8. Serve the Calendly link and Motion Requisition Form on opposing.
9. Complete a Lawyer’s Certificate of Service for the service.
10. If necessary, rename each of the Calendly email, Motion Requisition form and Lawyer’s Certificate of Service per the Court’s Naming Protocol:
    • Expert Report – Defendant – Loblaws – 13-MAR-2021
    • Financial Statement Form 1 – Respondent – A. Wong – 21-NOV-2021
    • 11b Application – Defence – Nathanson – 12-JAN-2021
11. By way of First Filing (~10 mins), file the Calendly email, Motion Requisition form and Lawyer’s Certificate of Service via the Ontario Court’s portal.
12. Serve the Motion Record with the date on opposing.
13. Complete a Lawyer’s Certificate of Service.
14. If necessary, rename the Motion Record and Lawyer’s Certificate of Service per the above Naming Protocol.
15. By way of Second Filing (~10 mins), file the Motion Record and Lawyer’s Certificate of Service via the Ontario Court’s portal.
16. Complete the Toronto specific Confirmation of Motion form (and not the standard Confirmation of Motion form from the Court’s online forms directory).
17. Serve the Confirmation of Motion form on opposing counsel.
18. Complete a Lawyer’s Certificate of Service for the service.
19. If necessary, rename the Confirmation of Motion form and Lawyer’s Certificate of Service per the above Naming Protocol.
20. By way of Third Filing (~10 mins), file the Confirmation of Motion form and Lawyer’s Certificate of Service via the Ontario Court’s portal at least 5 business days prior to hearing.

The original procedure for motion scheduling, with slight modifications, is set forth at the top of this page, while Toronto’s current procedure is set forth immediately above. Toronto’s current procedure is much more time intensive, with steps multiplying (ignoring the potential for documents to be rejected by the court, with the Toronto court rejecting 36.23% of filings in 2025), including the apparent requirement for 3 separate filings via the online Portal. It would have been hoped the court would consider a more, rather than less efficient process to ease the administrative burden on law firms and litigants (not to mention court staff), and to reduce the costs of litigation.