BC Court of Appeal: New COAL Citation Guide Now Required for Filings

• The British Columbia Court of Appeal has adopted the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL guide) as its preferred citation method.
• Effective September 8, all written submissions to the court, including factums and memoranda of law, must adhere to COAL guidance.
• Chief Justice Leonard Marchand issued the practice directive on August 24, establishing the new legal citation requirements for British Columbia.
• The COAL guide provides comprehensive citation formats for various legal sources, including specific instructions for AI-generated content.
• It differentiates between publicly and non-publicly available AI for citation purposes, while emphasizing it does not govern AI use or disclosure.

This directive, issued on August 24, requires all written submissions, including factums, written arguments, and memoranda of law, to adhere to COAL guidance starting September 8.

The British Columbia Court of Appeal has mandated a new standard for legal citation, with Chief Justice Leonard Marchand announcing that the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL guide) will become the court's preferred method. This directive, issued on August 24, requires all written submissions, including factums, written arguments, and memoranda of law, to adhere to COAL guidance starting September 8. This marks a significant shift in legal citation requirements for British Columbia practitioners.

The COAL guide, developed as a publicly accessible resource, operates under an open-access model. Its creation was inspired by the University of British Columbia Law Library Legal Citation Guide, aiming to provide a comprehensive and freely available framework for citing legal materials within the Canadian context.

The COAL guide offers detailed instructions for citing a wide array of Canadian legal sources. It covers essential elements such as pinpoints, number usage, URLs, and the proper presentation of dates, footnotes, in-text references, and bibliographies or tables of authorities. Furthermore, the guide provides specific formats for translating citations when necessary.

Beyond primary legal documents, the COAL guide extends its scope to secondary sources, encompassing books, news and journal articles, case comments, dictionaries, encyclopedias, websites, and various multimedia formats like video and audio recordings. It also addresses the citation of academic works, including reports, dissertations, and theses. Government publications are thoroughly covered, with guidance on parliamentary and legislative documents, non-parliamentary and non-legislative materials, Statistics Canada publications, and tax documents. The guide also specifies how to cite different types of laws, from statutes and constitutional statutes to bills, regulations, orders, codes of professional conduct, Law Society rules, and municipal by-laws. It further provides formats for case law citations, international and foreign sources, and crucially, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit - Crown Treaties.

A particularly relevant aspect of the new requirements for legal professionals is the COAL guide's inclusion of a dedicated section on citing material produced by artificial intelligence. This section provides distinct formats for referencing both publicly available and non-publicly available AI content. An AI is classified as publicly available if its cited version is accessible to the general public, whether through open or paid access. Conversely, it is deemed not publicly available if either the specific AI version or the AI system itself cannot be accessed by the general public in any manner.

It is important to note that while the guide provides citation formats for AI-generated content, it explicitly states that this framework is not intended to govern the use of AI or to dictate AI use disclosure policies. Instead, the guide directs users to consult disclosure rules established by courts, academic institutions, and other relevant organizations. These broader rules typically address concerns such as bias, privacy, copyright, the potential for inaccurate information, and environmental impact associated with AI technologies.

The Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide, which was last updated in July 2025, is also available in French, ensuring broader accessibility within Canada's bilingual legal landscape. Its development reflects a growing movement towards standardized and accessible legal citation resources.

In a related initiative, faculty and students at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law are currently developing their own open-access citation guide. This forthcoming resource will specifically focus on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit materials within the Canadian legal context, further contributing to the evolving landscape of specialized legal citation.

Lawyers and legal professionals submitting written materials to the British Columbia Court of Appeal must adopt the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL guide) as their preferred citation method by September 8. They should specifically review the guide's format for citing AI-generated content to ensure compliance with this new requirement.

Source: Reporting based on recent legal announcements.