As of January 1, 2017, Rule 22 of the New Brunswick Rules of Court for ‘Summary Judgment’ was repealed and replaced. Rule 22 for Summary Judgment has now been transformed from a means to weed out unmeritorious claims to a significant alternative model of adjudication. When faced with a lawsuit, a Summary Judgment Motion is an important method to employ to dismiss a meritless allegation or defence, without incurring the cost of proceeding to a Trial. As has always been the case, if one party can show early in the litigation and before Trial that there does not exist any genuine issue or dispute with regard to the facts, the Court will rule on the merits of the case.
