Course

Legal Process and Remedies

Faculty
Humanities & Social Sciences
Department
Legal Studies
Course code
LGST 1120
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Course designation
None
Industry designation
None
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course overviews the basic legal processes in Canada and the remedies available to litigants. It examines the structure of civil actions, criminal prosecutions and administrative law proceedings. It reviews statutory, procedural, common law, and equitable remedies available in the courts and explores the growth of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Key concepts, including jurisdiction, standing, parties, pleadings, orders, trials, juries, appeals, procedural fairness, judicial review and the adversarial system, are examined.
Course content

1. Introduction and Overview

  • History and function of civil litigation in Canada
  • History and function of criminal prosecution in Canada
  • Nature of administrative law dispute resolution

2.  Civil litigation

  • Commencing a lawsuit: expenses of litigation, standing, jurisdiction, limitations
  • Pleadings, pre-trial conferences and settlements, chambers practice
  • Examinations for discovery
  • Trial and judgment

 3.  Criminal Prosecution

  • Charges, election, classification of offences
  • Particulars, disclosure, preliminary inquiries
  • Plea bargaining
  • Juries
  • Voir dire, trial and sentencing

4.  Administrative Law

  • Procedures before boards and tribunals
  • Procedural fairness
  • Judicial review procedure

5.  Common law Remedies

  • Damages and abatement
  • Family law orders: spousal support, custody, divorce
  • Judicial review remedies

6.  Equitable Remedies

  • Injunctions
  • Specific Performance and rectification
  • Rescission
  • Restitutionary remedies
  • Accounting of profits
  • Tracing

7. Statutory Remedies

  • Sale of Goods Act
  • Consumer Protection Act
  • Statute of Frauds
  • Administrative compensation schemes
  • Administrative tribunal remedies

8. Procedural Remedies

  • Various interlocutory orders

9.  Collections and Creditors’ Remedies

  • Examination in aid of execution
  • Garnishment
  • Builders Lien Act  
  • Corporate creditors’ arrangements, bankruptcy and insolvency

10.  Forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

  • Mediation
  • Arbitration
  • Negotiation
  • Judicial Settlement Conference 
  • Circles and conferences
Learning activities

The following methods of instruction will be utilized:

  • Lectures
  • Class discussions
  • Individual or group work with conflict scenarios and case studies
Means of assessment

Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. An evaluation schedule will be provided at the beginning of the course. This is a graded course. Evaluation will be based upon the following:

  • Exams
  • Research paper or other written assignment
  • Oral examinations 
  • Class attendance and participation

Instructors may use a student's record of attendance and/or level of active participation in the course as part of the student's graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.

An example of one possible evaluation scheme would be:

 

Class attendance and participation        10%
Midterm exam  30%
Research paper  30%
Final exam  30%
Total 100%
Learning outcomes

At the conclusion of this course the successful student will be able to:

  1. Describe the history and function of civil litigation in Canada.
  2. Describe the history and function of criminal prosecution in Canada.
  3. Describe the role of administrative law proceedings in Canada.
  4. Define the basic structure of a civil action from the commencement of pleadings through trial.
  5. Describe a criminal prosecution from charge approval through trial and sentencing.
  6. Describe proceedings before selected administrative boards and tribunals.
  7. Describe the process of appeals and judicial review of administrative decisions.
  8. Compare and contrast the adversarial system of dispute resolution with alternative forms of dispute resolution currently available in the Canadian legal system.
  9. Identify and describe remedies available to litigants in tort, contract and family law.
  10. Identify and describe fundamental creditors’ remedies.
  11. Identify and describe equitable remedies.
  12. Identify the various courses of action and the remedies available to disputants through a series of typical, personal conflict scenarios.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and materials are to be obtained by students. A list of required and textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.

A copyright compliant course pack will be available for purchase by students and will include web links, recent case law and legislation as required and excerpts from the following leading texts:

  1. Berryman, Jeffrey. The Law of Equitable Remedies (latest edition) Toronto: Irwin Law.
  2. Chornenki, G.A. & Hart, C.H. Bypass Court: A Dispute Resolution Handbook, (latest edition) Toronto: LexisNexis Inc.
  3. Ewaschuk, E.G. Criminal Pleadings and Practice in Canada (latest edition) Aurora: Canada Law Book Inc.
  4. Fridman, G.H.L.  The Law of Contracts in Canada (latest edition) Toronto: Carswell
  5. Fridman, G.H.L. The Law of Torts in Canada (latest edition) Toronto: Carswell
  6. Gibson, D. & Murphy, T. All About Law: Exploring the Canadian Legal System (latest edition) Scarborough: Nelson, Thomson
  7. Mullan, David J. Essentials of Canadian Law, Administrative Law (latest edition) Toronto: Irwin Law.
  8. Stuart, D. & Delisle, R. Learning Canadian Criminal Law (latest edition) Scarborough: Thomson, Carswell
  9. The Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. British Columbia Creditors Remedies (latest edition) Vancouver.
  10. The Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. The Civil Trial Handbook (latest edition) Vancouver.  
  11. The Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. British Columbia Business Disputes (latest edition) Vancouver. 

Requisites

Prerequisites

None

Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

None

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for LGST 1120
Alexander College (ALEX) ALEX ARTS 1XX (3)
Athabasca University (AU) AU LGST 2XX (3)
Coast Mountain College (CMTN) No credit
College of the Rockies (COTR) COTR CRIM 1XX (3)
Columbia College (COLU) No credit
Coquitlam College (COQU) No credit
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU ARTS 1XXX (3)
Langara College (LANG) LANG CRIM 1XXX (3)
Northern Lights College (NLC) NLC CRIM 1XX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU CRIM 1XX (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU SOCI 1XXX (3)
Trinity Western University (TWU) TWU GENS 1XX (3)
University Canada West (UCW) No credit
University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) UBCO POLI_O 1st (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV ARTS_V 1st (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC HUMN 1XX (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV CRIM 1XX (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC SOSC 1XX (1.5)
Vancouver Community College (VCC) VCC CRIM 1XXX (3)
Vancouver Community College (VCC) No credit
Vancouver Island University (VIU) VIU CRIM 135 (3)

Course Offerings

There are no course offerings this semester.