Use of the Checklists

Although the checklists are the result of careful consideration of each area of law covered, they are not intended as a substitute for the professional judgment of a lawyer. An attempt has been made to be comprehensive, but the checklists are not exhaustive. Nor are they intended to impose mandatory guidelines for practice in any of the areas covered. In many cases, it will not be necessary to carry out all the activities outlined in the checklists; in other cases, alternative procedures may be more appropriate. The checklists are intended primarily to assist in the organization of a matter and to suggest things that a lawyer should consider.

We suggest that, when opening a file, you place copies of the relevant checklists in the file folder. When you first review a "procedure" checklist for a file, assign a responsible individual and due date for each relevant item, and mark inapplicable items with an "X" in the NA (not applicable) column. When you deal with the file subsequently, you will not have to re-read each item on a long checklist; you may concentrate on the applicable items only. It may be prudent, however, to make a final review of all checklist items before finalizing the file in case an item originally marked "NA" has become relevant in the interim.

Some checklists, such as those on drafting, appear in a slightly different form than the procedural checklists. They have a column for recording notes.

You may find it useful to customize some of the checklists for use in your particular areas of practice.

All references to legislation, regulations and the Professional Conduct Handbook in this Manual have been updated to February 1, 2009.

Back to the Checklists Introduction