New Fees for Court of Appeal, Court of Queen's Bench and the Sheriffs' Office
The Ministry of Justice and Attorney General is making changes to fees for services provided by the Court of Appeal, Court of Queen’s Bench, and the Sheriffs’ Office.
The changes follow an extensive review that looked into the cost of providing services.
“The review determined that the current fees have not kept up with the actual costs of providing these services,” Justice Minister and Attorney General Don Morgan said. “In the case of Court of Queen’s Bench, several of the current fees haven’t changed since the regulations came into effect in 1999.”
As a result, some new fees have been created and some existing fees have been revised to reflect the cost of providing those services, as well as to provide consistency between the courts.
Examples of fee changes include:
- In Court of Queen’s Bench, Commencing an Action (where mediation is not required) was $100 and has been increased to $200. Commencing an Action (where mediation is required) was $200 and has been increased to $300.
- The fee to file a Notice of Appeal at the Court of Appeal is increasing from $125 to $200.
- Photocopying fees in both Court of Queen’s Bench and the Court of Appeal go from $.50 to $1.00 per page to provide consistency with the fee charged at Provincial Court.
Consideration was given to ensuring that fee increases won’t unduly restrict access to the courts. Eligible low income individuals will continue to be able to obtain fee waiver certificates at all three levels of court in Saskatchewan.
The review also looked at the costs and compensation provided to interpreters, transcript services and expert witnesses. These fees have been updated to meet a reasonable standard of compensation for each service.