Canadian general civil caseloads from 2019/2020 to 2023/2024
Released: 2026-01-20
Following a five-year period of relative stability, restrictions on gatherings imposed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020/2021) resulted in a 22% drop in active general civil cases in Canadian civil courts. Overall, general civil caseloads rose from 2020/2021 to 2023/2024 (+10%); however, there were still fewer active general civil cases in 2023/2024 than before the start of the pandemic (-14%). This suggests that the Canadian civil court system was still recovering from the slowdown at the height of the pandemic (Chart 1; Table 1).
Chart 1
Number of general civil cases, by case unit, 2019/2020 to 2023/2024
Canadians can access civil courts to resolve a wide range of non-criminal legal matters, such as contract disputes, claims for injury or property damage, probate and estate matters, applications for protection or guardianship of an adult, and non-criminal family matters.
This release uses data from the Civil Court Survey (CCS) to assess the number and nature of general civil (i.e., non-family) cases that have progressed through the Canadian civil court system since 2019/2020, with a particular focus on shifts during the pandemic.
How general civil caseloads shifted during the pandemic
Contract disputes (21%), tort actions (33%), bankruptcy (4%), probate (8%) and other general civil claims (35%) made up the total general civil court caseloads from 2019/2020 to 2023/2024 (see Note to readers for a list of general civil case types and definitions) (Table 2).
General civil cases dropped from 615,452 in 2019/2020 to 480,412 in 2020/2021 (-22%). This was the largest year-over-year decrease since the launch of the CCS in 2005 (Chart 1; Table 1).
The number of active general civil cases declined in eight of the nine reporting provinces and territories from 2019/2020 to 2020/2021, the year in which the pandemic began. These decreases ranged from 5% in Yukon to 31% in Ontario. Nunavut was the lone exception, recording an increase of 19% (from 318 to 377 cases) (Table 1).
Except for a rise in active negligence cases (+8%), largely driven by an increase in Nova Scotia, all general civil case types decreased in 2020/2021. The steepest declines were noted in active cases related to the enforcement of an existing order (-62%), landlord and tenant disputes (-44%), and mortgage foreclosure cases (-36%) (Table 2).
By 2023/2024, court caseloads increased 2% from the previous year to 528,017 active general civil cases because of a 10% rise in new cases. Active defamation, civil protection, and adult protection and committeeship cases increased each year since 2020/2021 and exceeded the pre-pandemic volume of cases by 2023/2024. By contrast, the number of active motor vehicle cases decreased across all four years, from 145,164 cases in 2019/2020 to 99,079 cases in 2023/2024. This reduction was driven largely by decreases in British Columbia that were possibly linked to the province's transition to a no-fault insurance model in May 2021 (Chart 1; Table 1; Table 2; Table 3).
Proportion of ongoing cases from a previous year higher since the pandemic
Before the onset of the pandemic, the proportion of new general civil cases entering the courts was consistently higher than that of cases continuing from a previous year. However, by 2021/2022, ongoing cases made up more of the active caseload (55%), possibly indicating a backlog from the first year of the pandemic (2020/2021). In 2023/2024, just over half (51%) of cases were ongoing from previous years, down from 54% in 2022/2023, possibly indicating that these backlogs were beginning to clear (Chart 2).
Chart 2
Proportion of newly initiated and ongoing general civil cases, 2013/2014 to 2023/2024
In 2023/2024, ongoing caseloads declined in 12 types of general civil cases, with 5 types experiencing reductions for the second consecutive year: mortgage foreclosure, collection, motor vehicle, malpractice, and other and unknown tort (Table 5).
New general civil cases fell 23% in 2020/2021 and have not returned to their pre-pandemic levels
Many courts implemented practice directives during the pandemic to prioritize urgent or emergency matters. Subsequently, most provinces and territories recorded declines in the number of new general civil cases initiated in 2020/2021, ranging from a 10% decrease in Yukon to a 36% drop in the Northwest Territories. Overall, the active civil court caseload decreased by 22% during this period. By contrast, Nunavut recorded 61 new general civil cases (+50%) in 2020/2021 (Chart 1; Table 1; Table 3).
While the majority of new case types fell in 2020/2021, new employment cases (+16%) increased notably. The largest decreases were recorded in newly initiated enforcement (-73%), landlord and tenant (-46%), and mortgage foreclosure (-43%) cases. These declines may be because governments introduced mortgage deferrals, eviction bans, rental assistance and financial aid to support homeowners, renters and landlords facing financial hardship (Table 4).
Despite increases in two-thirds of reporting provinces and territories, an overall decline was observed in new general civil cases entering the courts (-3%) in the second year of the pandemic (2021/2022). In an effort to reduce court backlogs, some cases may have been redirected to other forums, such as administrative tribunals, alternative dispute resolution services or online platforms. While Nunavut (-22%) and Alberta (-1%) recorded fewer new cases overall, the decrease in British Columbia (-12,466 cases, or -19%) contributed the most to the overall decline (Chart 1; Table 3).
Following a year of relative stability, new general civil cases grew to 257,450 in 2023/2024 (+10% from 2022/2023). This was the first notable increase since 2020/2021, although the number of cases was still 18% lower than in 2019/2020, before the pandemic (Chart 1).
New adult protection and committeeship (+61%), administrative law (+38%), civil protection (+29%), collection (+5%), employment (+4%), and defamation (+3%) cases all surpassed their pre-pandemic levels in 2023/2024. By contrast, there were fewer new motor vehicle (-59%), bankruptcy (-38%), landlord and tenant (-35%), negligence (-23%), constitutional or charter (-22%), lien (-12%), enforcement (-12%), malpractice (-10%), other and unknown tort (-5%), and other and unknown contract (-4%) cases (Table 4).
Legal representation is intended to ensure fairness and access to justice, allowing individuals to effectively navigate the legal system. Legal representation information was reported for plaintiffs in 54% of cases and for defendants in 47% of cases active from 2019/2020 to 2023/2024 in three reporting provinces (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Ontario).
Overall, in 84% of the cases active during this period, at least one plaintiff was reported as having legal representation at some point throughout the case and no plaintiffs were reported as self-represented at any point. Conversely, in 15% of active cases, at least one plaintiff was identified as self-represented at some point and no plaintiffs were reported as having legal representation at any point throughout the case.
In just over half (56%) of the cases active during this period, at least one defendant was reported as self-represented at some point during the case and no defendants were reported as having legal representation at any point. By contrast, in 29% of cases, at least one defendant was reported as having legal representation at some point during the case and no defendants were identified as self-represented at any point.
The proportion of cases where both legal representation and self-representation were recorded during the case was higher for defendants (16%) than plaintiffs (1%) during this period.
General civil cases took almost one month longer to reach a first disposition in 2023/2024 than before the pandemic
Many factors influence the timeliness of general civil cases in Canada, including court resources, case complexity and delays caused by the pandemic.
In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada, in R v. Jordan, set strict time limits for criminal trials to address unreasonable delays and uphold the right to a timely trial.
This decision likely resulted in delays of civil cases, as courts prioritized criminal matters to avoid having them dismissed because of Jordan-related delays.
In the first year following the establishment of presumptive ceilings in criminal courts, general civil cases took, on average, 10 more days to reach a first disposition (median of 107 days) than they did in 2016/2017, followed by another slight increase in 2019/2020 (108 days) (Chart 3).
Increases in processing times began before the pandemic, but they had a clear impact on the length of time to reach a first disposition. The median time for a general civil case to reach its first disposition in 2020/2021 was 133 days, before peaking in 2022/2023 (148 days) and falling the following year (134 days) (Chart 3).
Chart 3
Median days from case initiation to first disposition in active general civil cases, 2016/2017 to 2023/2024
All case types except four—administrative law (-31.5 days), other and unknown contract (-21 days), constitutional or charter (-16.5 days), and mortgage foreclosure (-2 days) cases—were slower to reach a first disposition in 2023/2024 than in 2020/2021 (Table 6).
Although the majority of newly initiated general civil cases do not reach a first disposition within a year, the first year of the pandemic saw the lowest proportion of such cases (29%) of all years considered (Chart 4).
Chart 4
Proportion of general civil cases with and without a disposition in the first year, 2019/2020 to 2023/2024
Note to readers
The Civil Court Survey (CCS) collects information on family and non-family civil court cases from the provinces and territories at the superior and provincial or territorial court levels. The CCS excludes data from Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, and Manitoba, provinces that are not yet reporting information to the survey. This release also excludes data from Saskatchewan for data availability reasons. Criminal court cases are out of scope for this survey. Percentages may not add up to 100% because of rounding. Years reported in the CCS are from April 1 to March 31.
For the purposes of this analysis, 2020/2021 (April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021) is considered as the first year of the pandemic.
Active caseloads in the courts are measured by the number of cases with at least one court event that moved all or part of the case through the court process during the year and thus include newly initiated cases.
Newly initiated general civil cases refer to cases that are filed with a civil court for the first time during a specific reporting period.
Ongoing general civil cases refer to cases initiated in a previous fiscal year with activity recorded in a subsequent fiscal year.
A general civil case is any civil action that is not a family-related action, such as contracts, torts, bankruptcy, probate matters and other claims involving money.
The active general civil case types examined in this release are defined as follows:
Landlord and tenant refers to contract cases concerning the rights and obligations of a landlord and tenant, based on an expressed or implied lease or tenancy agreement. Information from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Employment refers to contract cases stemming from the law that governs the relationship between employer and employee (e.g., wrongful dismissal). Information from Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Mortgage foreclosure refers to contract cases concerning the holder of a mortgage and the owner of the property covered by the mortgage. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Lien refers to cases involving a lien (claim) on real property for services, labour or materials furnished to improve that property (e.g., construction, vendor and mechanics liens). Information from Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Collection refers to contract cases dealing with collection matters. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Other and unknown contract refers to any contract-related cases not specifically listed above and contract cases where the details are unknown. Information from Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories is included.
Motor vehicle refers to tort actions concerning injury (personal or property) caused by a motor vehicle. Information from Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Malpractice refers to tort actions concerning injury caused by medical or professional malpractice. Information from Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Defamation refers to tort actions concerning the injury of a person's reputation (slander or libel). Information from Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Negligence refers to tort actions concerning an act or instance of being negligent. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Other and unknown tort refers to any tort-related actions not specifically listed above and tort cases where the details are unknown. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories is included. In Prince Edward Island, the "other tort" category includes tort actions concerning injury caused by a motor vehicle.
Bankruptcy refers to proceedings initiated either by an insolvent individual or business (voluntary bankruptcy) or by creditors (involuntary bankruptcy) seeking either to have the debtor's remaining assets distributed among the creditors or to restructure debt. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Probate refers to cases involving the administration and distribution of the estates of deceased individuals (whether they left a will or died intestate). Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included. In Ontario, the figures reported under probate matters include contested estate matters only.
Administrative law refers to any actions involving judicial review of decisions from boards or quasi-judicial tribunals dealing with administrative law. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Enforcement refers to cases involving a request for enforcement of an existing order. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia (from 2020/2021), Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Adult protection and committeeship refers to proceedings through which an individual is appointed substitute decision maker for an adult unable to manage their own affairs, including the management of the adult's income and assets. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Civil protection refers to any matters where measures of protection are sought (e.g., protective relief, such as orders prohibiting attendance at certain locations or prohibiting contact with certain individuals, or restraining orders). Non-civil (criminal) events fall outside the scope of this survey and thus are not counted here. Information from Nova Scotia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories is included.
Constitutional or charter refers to any matters dealing with constitutional or charter issues. Information from Prince Edward Island, Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
Unspecified other general civil and unknown refers to all other civil actions (excluding family) not specifically identified above and other general civil cases where the details are unknown. Information from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is included.
There are factors that may influence case length that are out of scope of the CCS. The CCS does not have information available on the reason for any scheduling changes, adjournments or delays in court activity. Some jurisdictions are able to report information on referrals to services outside court, such as alternative dispute resolution programs and mediation. However, it is not possible to determine whether the programs were completed or successful.
A disposition is a court event that disposes of part of or all of the civil case (e.g., settlement, consent judgment and judgment). Disposition events may also include cases that are transferred permanently to another court location, court level or type of court. Therefore, it is important to note that the case may not necessarily be disposed of but may instead continue in another court.
For further details on the establishment of presumptive ceilings for trial completion in criminal courts, see R. v. Jordan. 2016. SCC 27, [2016] 1 S.C.R. 631.
Legal representation data for plaintiffs and defendants are available from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Ontario. Caution should be exercised when interpreting legal representation outcomes because of the limited proportion of cases for which this information is available.
The proportion of cases for litigants who were both self-represented and represented throughout a case may be underestimated because of reporting limitations.
"Self-represented" includes both self-represented and unrepresented litigants as classified in the CCS National Data Requirements. However, the CCS is unable to differentiate between self-represented and unrepresented litigants.
"Represented" includes plaintiffs and defendants with a legal aid lawyer, non-legal aid lawyer or duty counsel.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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