The Queen’s Bench Filing Digital Service (FDS) allows lawyers and legal assistants to file a wide range of Civil: General Filing and Claims documents not requiring fee waivers electronically, in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge. Because FDS requires the creation of an account, it is available to lawyers (and legal assistants) and law firms only. This Announcement does not apply to filings made by self-represented litigants.
Effective February 14, 2022, use of the FDS filing system will be mandatory for Counsel filing the following Pleadings in Civil cases in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge:
- Statement of Claim/Amended Statement of Claim
- Statement of Defence/Amended Statement of Defence
- Reply to Defence
- Demand for Notice by Defendant
- Notice of Claim Against Co-Defendant
- Noting in Default
- Third Party Claim/Amended Third Party Claim
- Third Party Statement of Defence/Amended Third Party Statement of Defence
- Demand for Notice by Third Party Defendant
- Reply to Defence of Third Party Defendant
- Counterclaim/Amended Counterclaim
- Statement of Defence to Counterclaim/Amended Statement of Defence to
- Counterclaim
- Reply to Statement of Defence to Counterclaim
A grace period of two weeks shall be observed, until February 28, 2022, before use of FDS for filing these materials will be strictly enforced. Please note that FDS cannot accommodate filings for which payment is waived or from entities that do not currently pay a fee (ie. fee waiver or Legal Aid Certificate, filings by Alberta Justice), and therefore these filings will continue to be accepted by email.
Lawyers and legal assistants using FDS must first create an account. Instructions for the creation of an account, an overview of FDS, and an additional guide for lawyers and legal assistants are available at the following links:
QB Filing Digital Service (alberta.ca)
QB Filing - Law Firm User Guide (alberta.ca)
Please note that while, as of February 14, 2022, use of FDS will be mandatory for the Pleadings set out above, FDS can accommodate a wide range of Civil filings more efficiently than email filing. Lawyers and legal assistants are encouraged to make use of FDS to file all of the materials that are currently accepted. A complete list of documents that FDS will accept is set out at the following link:
QB Filing - Accepted Document Types (alberta.ca)