Sanjiv Parmar has joined the Board to fill the vacancy created by the judicial appointment of the Honourable Judge Sandra Mah to the Provincial Court of Alberta.

Sanjiv was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. He received his Bachelor of Arts (minor in Management and Society) in 2005, Bachelor of Commerce in 2007, and Juris Doctor in 2010 from the University of Calgary. Sanjiv was admitted to the Alberta Bar in 2011. After working at law firms and with Alberta Justice, Sanjiv founded Parmar Law in 2016. He practises in various areas and is a mediator, holding mediation designations. 

Sanjiv is active in the community and volunteers with numerous community and legal organizations, as well as with post-secondary institutions. He speaks on various topics, including domestic violence, family law, child welfare, mediations, protection orders, networking, stress management, diversity, anti-racism, harassment and access to justice.

For more information on the Board, please visit our website.

For many lawyers in Alberta, the past two years have changed how they do their job. Whether through remote work, rapid digitalization or pressure to adapt to the “new normal” of work, lawyers and law firm staff have had to adjust to a rapidly changing practice of law.

The Law Society Benchers have approved newly modernized rules for trust accounting, starting January 2022. Please join us for a webinar, where we will present the major thematic changes to the rules, highlight some of the key areas where the rules are modernized and discuss next steps. 

As most lawyers are aware, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General issued Ministerial Order 27/2020 which suspended limitation periods in a number of enactments from March 17 to June 1, 2020. The Ministerial Order expired on June 1, 2020, and limitations began to run again.

The time periods suspended by the Ministerial Order included Rules 3.26(1) and 3.27(2) of the Alberta Rules of Court. These rules deal with time for service of a statement of claim and obtaining an extension of the time for service.

The Law Society continues to receive questions about the effect of the Ministerial Order on the calculation of limitation periods and the interpretation of the terms of the suspension.

It has also come to the Law Society’s attention that some lawyers are incorrectly relying upon the Ministerial Order when calculating limitation periods that began running on or after June 1, 2020. For example, lawyers should not be taking the Ministerial Order into account when calculating time for service of a statement of claim filed on or after June 1, 2020. Any statement of claim filed with the court on or after June 1, 2020, is not affected by the Ministerial Order and the 75-day suspension of time for service is not applicable.

Effective Jan. 4, 2022, the Court will implement a Justice “Urgent Matters Chambers” that will operate every day from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on a pilot project basis.

Effective Oct. 4, 2021: All email filing submissions being identified as urgent will require a letter on law firm letterhead outlining the nature of the emergency to accompany the filing submission. If your request is marked urgent and a letter does not accompany it, your submission will be processed in the normal course.

As of Jan. 4, 2022, the Provincial Court Civil Division will discontinue the use of drop boxes for filings. All filings can be made in-person at Courthouses across the province.