Law360 Canada (September 2, 2026, 5:46 PM EDT) -- The B.C. Court of Appeal has issued a practice directive adopting the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL), a free, publicly accessible legal citation guide, as its preferred method for civil and criminal filings in an effort to advance access to justice.

“Parties preparing factums, written arguments, memoranda of law, or any written submissions to the Court of Appeal are requested to comply with the guidance in COAL for all forms of legal citation. The guide is open access and available for free online,” the court said in the directive issued on Aug. 24.

The directive takes effect on Sept. 8.

COAL was created with the goal of providing a legal citation guide that is accessible to everyone through an open-access publishing model.

The court also recommended that parties not cite case summaries or headnotes and that they add the name of a judge at the end of a citation only when relevant, giving the example of a citation that identifies a dissenting judge.

The directive also noted that it is not necessary to provide full citations to the rules of the various courts in British Columbia and gave several examples of acceptable abbreviated citations.

The court also asked parties to avoid overly formal language, stating that it prefers plain language.

“Avoid overly formal language, such as ‘this Honourable Court,’ ‘heretofore,’ ‘aforesaid,’ or ‘learned.’ Only use Latin phrases if necessary,” the directive recommends.

The court also recommended that the names of documents, the titles of pleadings and the status of litigation parties not be capitalized unless required in a form.

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