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Surrogate
Digital Service

This notice is issued on behalf of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta and the Court and Justice Services Division of the Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General.

On June 15, 2022 new Surrogate Rules came into effect authorizing the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta (the “Court”) to issue Grants in electronic, i.e. digital form.

The Surrogate Rules (AR 130/1995) govern the practice and procedure in the Court with respect to, among other things, wills and estate matters. Part 3.1 of the Surrogate Rules, which came into effect on June 15, 2022, provides that the Court may use an electronic system established by the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General of Alberta (the “Minister”) in respect of matters under the Rules, including for the purpose of creating, issuing, and filing documents.

The electronic system established by the Minister is called the Surrogate Digital Service (the “Service”).The Service permits lawyers, on behalf of their clients, to submit Grant applications to the Court online. Applications submitted online are subject to the same review by the Court as applications submitted on paper. When the Court approves an application submitted through the Service, the Grant will be issued digitally by the Court and provided to the applicant as a PDF document.

Grant sample

Digitally issued Grants will contain, amongst other information, the following:

  1. a stamp from the Clerk of the Court certifying the document as a true copy of the Grant issued digitally on the specified date,
  2. the Judicial Centre of the Court where the Grant was issued,
  3. the court file number in this format: DES-XXXXXXX,
  4. the name of the estate and deceased’s date of death,
  5. directions, limitations, express authorizations, if any, provided by the reviewing Justice, and
  6. the name and signature of the reviewing Justice.

Information on the Service may be accessed on the Government of Alberta website at https://surrogate.alberta.ca.

Information on the Court’s announcement respecting use of the Service may be accessed on the Alberta Courts’ website at https://albertacourts.ca/qb/resources/announcements/launch-of-the-surrogate-digital-service.

The Surrogate Rules (AR 130/1995) can be viewed on the CanLII website at https://www.canlii.org or the Alberta King’s Printer website at https://www.alberta.ca/laws-online-catalogue.aspx.

Questions about a specific Grant should be directed to the Surrogate office of the Court in the judicial centre indicated on the Grant. The Court’s Surrogate offices can be contacted by calling 310-0000 (toll free within Alberta) and asking the operator to connect you with the appropriate office.