The Courts We Support

Federal Court


The Federal Court is a national, bilingual, bijural, superior court of record, which hears and decides legal disputes arising in the federal domain. It is the successor to the Exchequer Court of Canada which was established in 1875. The jurisdiction of the Federal Court derives primarily from the Federal Courts Act, though over 100 other federal statutes also confer jurisdiction on the Court. The Federal Court has original, but not exclusive, jurisdiction over proceedings by and against the Crown (including Aboriginal law claims), and proceedings involving admiralty law and intellectual property law. It has exclusive jurisdiction to hear certain national security proceedings as well as applications for judicial review of the decisions of most federal boards, commissions and tribunals. This includes applications for judicial review of decisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Further information on the Federal Court can be found at: www.fct-cf.gc.ca.

The following statistics provide a record of the workload handled by the employees of the Judicial and Registry Services Branch in support of the Federal Court.

Federal Court 2013-14 2012-13 2011-12 2010-11 2009-10
Proceedings Instituted or Filed
  General Proceedings and Immigration
  Income Tax Act certificates
  Excise Tax Act certificates
  Other instruments and certificates
37,275
10,153
14,846
11,956
320
38,441
13,940
13,277
10,795
429
31,527
12,379
10,737
7,789
622
30,786
9,766
12,333
8,147
540
33,866
8,692
15,630
9,077
467
Court Judgments, Orders and
Directions Processed by the Registry
20,864 23,387 22,184 21,205 19,866
Files prepared for hearing and heard in Court 4,065 5,493 4,385 4,215 4,407
Days in Court 3,057 3,042 2,961 2,996 3,019
Recorded Entries 261,071 287,878 254,147 238,525 233,038
Total Dispositions – General Proceedings
and Immigration
11,640 11,610 10,555 9,362 8,821
Active Proceedings as of March 31 2013-14 2012-13 2011-12 2010-11 2009-10
Aboriginal 216 232 240 210 224
Other appeals provided for by law 196 156 142 120 109
Admiralty 196 233 234 270 284
Intellectual property 543 532 548 626 677
Immigration 5,251 6,835 4,705 2,895 2,565
Crown 456 341 291 315 305
Judicial Review 859 783 747 702 668
Patented Medicines Regulations 67 88 74 71 70
Total 7,784 9,200 6,981 5,209 4,902
Status as of March 31 2013-14 2012-13 2011-12 2010-11 2009-10
Not perfected 3,703 6,477 4,650 3,511 3,303
Perfected 1,323 1,490 759 570 696
Consolidated 197 64 37 61 30
Reserved 160 208 207 144 127
Scheduled for hearing 594 641 636 481 422
Stayed 1,807 320 692 442 324
Total 7,784 9,200 6,981 5,209 4,902