• Canada's Rules of Civil Procedure share much in common with their American counterpart.o' canada image by Kathryn Palmer from Fotolia.com
  
  The Rules of Civil Procedure in Canada are a body of rules regulating the practice of attorney and judges in the civil courts of Canada. The rules share much in common with the American Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in their development, composition and application. In Canada, as in the United States, there are multiple sets of rules of civil procedure, one for the federal courts and individual sets of rules for the states or provinces.
  
  

Purpose of the Rules

• Canada Rule of Civil Procedure 1.04 states "These rules shall be liberally construed to secure the just, most expeditious and least expensive determination of every civil proceeding on its merits."
  
  

General Matters

• The first section of the Canadian Rules of Civil Procedure - Rules 1 through 4 - is entitled "General Matters" and deals with application and interpretation of the rules, non-compliance issues, time issues and court documents.
  
  

Parties and Joinder

• The second broad section of the rules - rules 5 through 13 - covers parties and joinder issues. This section regulates when and how additional parties may be brought into a civil action, the method for commencing a class action lawsuit, and transferring interests between parties, among other issues.
  
  

Commencement of Proceedings and Service of Process

• The "Commencement of Proceedings" section - Rules 14 and 15 - discusses the initial phases of a civil action, as well as certain rules regarding lawyers, such as when a lawyer is required and the general relationship between lawyer and client. The next section discusses the means for serving process on parties to the civil action.
  
  

Disposition Without Trial

• Rules 19 to 24.1 deal with methods of terminating a civil action without trial, including summary judgment, dismissal and default judgment.
  
  

Pre-Trial Rules

• Rules 25 through 51 deal with legal actions taken prior to a trial. The sections covered by these rules include: "Pleadings," "Discovery," "Examinations Out of Court," "Motions and Applications," "Preservation of Rights in Pending Litigation" and "Pre-Trial Procedures."
  
  

Trials and Appeals

• The remaining rules deal primarily with the conduct of a trial, the orders of a court during and after a trial, the enforcement of those orders and appeals from orders and judgments. Additionally, the rules discuss the costs of litigation and who bears the responsibility for those costs.