Anyone served with a Notice of Motion for court in Brandon will see reference in the document to a Monday morning court date. And usually the date specified is only a week or two away. It's no surprise then that most people will panic when they see this date. Most will then call a lawyer who can reassure them that it's not as bad as it looks.
In Brandon, we have a Monday morning Master's List. This is basically a docket court. The Master, who is like a Judge, presides over the docket. Motions and procedural matters appear on this list. There can be dozens of cases on the Monday morning list. Lawyers appear and speak to their matters in alphabetical order.
For each case, the lawyers will ask to adjourn (postpone) the case for one or two weeks, or more, if they are negotiating, waiting on documents or expert reports, or needing time to respond to the evidence filed. Most cases are adjourned two or three times. The Master can approve or deny the adjournment requests.
Or, the lawyers can decide that all the evidence has been filed and they need to schedule a court date with a Judge. The court clerk will then offer the next available dates. The hearings are normally a month to three months away.
Other times, the lawyers and their clients may have settled the case, and so the lawyers will ask the clerk to take the case off the list all together.
When clients have a lawyer, they don`t normally attend Masters Court, given that it involves scheduling and not a Judge hearing their case. All clients are of course free to attend if they would like.
Basically, if a person is served with a Motion showing a Monday morning court date, they shouldn't panic. It's most likely not the actual hearing date. But, they can't ignore it all together. They must either attend court or send a lawyer to attend, or an order could result without their input.
The Monday morning docket is still by phone only. This saves lawyers and self-represented clients the need to travel for very short appearances
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