“Adjournment” means a delay in a proceeding. In civil litigation and administrative appeal proceedings, adjournment requests are common.

Lawyers in Ontario have a professional obligation to consent to reasonable requests concerning “trial dates, adjournments, the waiver of procedural formalities and similar matters that do not prejudice the rights of the client.”

Therefore, even in an acrimonious proceeding where the client has instructed the lawyer to refuse to grant the other side any extensions of deadlines, the lawyer must inform the client that he or she is unable to proceed as instructed.

If the parties can’t agree on an adjournment request, the courts and tribunals may rule on it. In the recent case of Law Society of Upper Canada v. Igbinosun,^ the Ontario Court of Appeal summarized the following non-exhaustive procedural and substantive considerations in deciding whether to grant or refuse an adjournment.

According to the Court, factors that may support the denial of an adjournment include the following:

• a lack of compliance with prior court orders
• previous adjournments that have been granted
• previous peremptory hearing dates,
• the desirability of having the matter decided
• a finding that the applicant is seeking to manipulate the system by orchestrating delay

On the other hand, factors that may favour the granting of an adjournment include these:

• the consequences of the hearing are serious
• the applicant would be prejudiced if the request were not granted
• a finding that the applicant was honestly seeking to exercise his [or her] right to cousel

In addition to the above, the following factors should also be considered:

• the timeliness of the request
• the applicant’s reason for being unable to proceed on the scheduled date
• the length of the requested adjournment

*Rules of Professional Conduct, s. 6.03(1)

^ (2009) 96 O.R. (3d)149 at para. 37.

PSWLaw is your advocate in civil litigation and administrative appeal matters.

Please Note: This article is provided for information and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be regarded as such. The law may have changed since the publication of the article.