Supreme Court of Canada’s caseload picking up

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The Supreme Court of Canada’s workload has been picking up this year, and it’s a trend that looks set to accelerate. 

“We anticipate that the number of appeals received will return to levels not seen since before the pandemic,” Chief Justice Richard Wagner said during his annual press conference earlier this month. 

“This is an important milestone, reflecting the nationwide efforts to address pandemic-related backlogs.”

As of May 31, the Court has granted leave to appeal to 32 cases—the same number it granted in all of 2025. Over the same period last year, only 17 cases were granted leave. In 2024, it was only 15.

For context, Nadia Effendi, partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Toronto, says that during the pandemic in 2021, the Court had granted 24 applications by the end of May. Pre-pandemic, in 2018, the Court granted only 15 leaves in that time.

“I would caution against focusing solely on the January-to-May period when comparing these statistics,” she says. 

“The timing of when leave to appeal applications are filed and granted tends to vary. Historically, we have seen fewer applications decided during the third quarter of the year, which aligns with the summer months.”

Eugene Meehan, a partner with Supreme Advocacy in Ottawa, says the leave-granted rate so far this year is 16.8 per cent, compared with 6.8 percent in 2025 and 6.7 per cent in 2024.

“In other words, not just a modest increase, but roughly two-and-a-half times the prior rate.”

He adds that the number of hearing days has also increased, reversing a decade-long decline. The Court has already sat for 38 hearing days this year, compared with 40 in all of 2024 and 55 in 2025.

Paul-Erik Veel, a partner at Lenczner Slaght LLP in Toronto, says that with respect to Wagner, he doesn’t see the rationale for the increase in cases being related to the COVID backlog.

“If that were true, you would have expected to see a much higher number of leave applications being decided,” he says. 

“That suggests the pipeline is a lot bigger as we’re clearing out the post-COVID backlog, and I don’t think the data is consistent with that.”

Veel points to data he published recently, which shows that the number of leave applications decided by May 31 is down this year compared to the same period in previous years.

“While I would have to understand how the Chief Justice was approaching it, I don’t see obvious evidence of [the backlog] in the data,” he says. 

“What it looks like to me is the Court trying to increase its pipeline of future cases, and making an affirmative decision to that end.”

Effendi’s not sure that clearing the backlogs fully explains things. The 193 leave applications filed as of June do not indicate an unusual surge, especially compared with the 478 filings in all of 2025.

“A deeper analysis of the 32 applications granted this year would be necessary to determine when the underlying litigation began, whether it was (before, during or after) the pandemic.”

While the data suggests an increased grant rate, she says we’ll need to see how the rest of the year unfolds, as it’s entirely possible the pace of filings and grants could change in the coming months.

Veel says that if the current trend this year holds, the Court would see volumes more akin to those it saw throughout the 2010s, in the 50-60 cases per year range.

“I don’t think the Court has relaxed its standards in the sense that they are now granting leave to cases that don’t raise issues of public importance,” he says. 

“Do we really think there was a drop-off for half a decade (when) there weren’t enough cases of public importance making their way up to the Court?”

Veel’s analysis shows an uptick in the number of public and private law cases granted leave, with public law seeing the largest bounce-back. He says the numbers overall for the year are a more balanced reflection of the historical mix of cases making their way through lower courts.

“The Court’s docket…had trended pretty strongly in the criminal direction in recent years, so seeing more non-criminal, public law and private law cases is welcome for the Court to weigh in on.”

Given the increase in self-represented litigants applying to the Court, particularly in private law matters, Veel says the number of leaves being granted is even more surprising.

Meehan says one pattern counsel are watching is whether the Court is becoming more willing to grant leave in areas where national guidance is needed sooner, rather than letting issues percolate up through provincial appellate courts.

“It remains to be seen whether this is a one-year spike or the beginning of a broader shift, but I would not be surprised if it continued,” he says, noting the Court’s 2025 Year in Review expressed an expectation about hearing more cases in 2026. 

“They are living up to that self-prediction.”

For parties considering a Supreme Court appeal, this year has been a noticeably more favourable environment than the past 10 years, Meehan says. From a practitioner’s perspective, the grant rate increase is also meaningful, as lawyers in every specialty have areas they believe warrant 'supreme' guidance to bring more juridical certainty and reduce unnecessary litigation in contentious areas.

“We all want our Supreme Court to be the Swiss Army knife for every area of law in Canada,” he says.

“And the Court is clearly increasingly doing that more, everything from A to Z—from agriculture to zoning.”