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. Its jurisdiction derives primarily from the Federal Courts Act, though over 100 other federal statutes also confer jurisdiction on the Court. It has original, but not exclusive jurisdiction, over proceedings by and against the Crown (including Aboriginal law claims), and proceedings involving admiralty and intellectual property law. It has exclusive jurisdiction to hear certain national security proceedings and applications for judicial review of the decisions of federal commissions, tribunals and boards. Further information on the Federal Court can be found at: www.fct-cf.gc.ca.

The table below provides an overview of the workload of the Judicial and Registry Services in support of the Federal Court.

Federal Court 2016–17 2015–16 2014–15 2013–14 2012–13
Proceedings Instituted or Filed 28,304 31,583 35,731 37,275 38,411
General Proceedings and Immigration 7,329 7,563 9,722 10,153 13,940
Income Tax Act certificates 13,551 14,816 14,816 14,846 13,277
Excise Tax Act certificates 7,111 9,070 10,792 11,956 10,795
Other instruments and certificates 301 258 401 320 429
Court Judgments, Orders and Directions Processed by the Registry 17,826 18,720 20,561 20,864 23,387
Files prepared for hearing and heard in Court 3,476 4,086 4,223 4,065 5,493
Days in Court 2,885 3,036 3,109 3,057 3,042
Recorded Entries 233,241 243,620 259,077 261,071 287,878
Total Dispositions – General Proceedings and Immigration 7,547 8,275 9,030 11,460 11,610
Active Proceedings as of March 31
Aboriginal 240 223 210 216 232
Other appeals provided for by law 411 270 199 196 156
Admiralty 204 196 205 196 233
Intellectual property 520 485 485 543 532
Immigration 3,238 3,433 5,657 5,251 6,835
Crown 376 665 669 456 341
Judicial Review 763 869 840 859 783
Patented Medicines Regulations 20 24 55 67 88
Total 5,772 6,165 8,320 7,784 9,200
Status as of March 31
Not perfected 3,405 3,508 3,663 3,703 6,477
Perfected 236 399 632 1,323 1,490
Consolidated 909 717 776 197 64
Reserved 137 160 204 160 208
Scheduled for hearing 453 446 911 594 641
Stayed 632 935 2,134 1,807 320
Total 5,772 6,165 8,320 7,784 9,200