Jurisdiction of King's Bench Court

The Court of King’s Bench is a court of superior jurisdiction. This means that it can generally hear any type of legal issue. The exception to this is if legislation sets out that a certain type of issue is dealt with in another way. For example, matters that deal purely with income tax issues are required to be heard in the tax courts. When it comes to civil matters, King’s Bench hears things like:

• negligence claims, where someone has negligently caused damage to someone else
• contractual claims, where an agreement was not followed
• estate matters, where issues relating to someone’s estate need to be settled

You can start a civil action to sue someone in Saskatchewan if the person you are suing lives here. If they do not live here, there would need to be what is called a "real and substantial connection" to Saskatchewan. For example, if the person you are suing does not live in Saskatchewan, but the matter you are suing about took place here, a Saskatchewan court could accept jurisdiction. The other party can also agree to have the case decided in Saskatchewan even if they do not live here. Sometimes contracts will include a clause dealing with which court will have jurisdiction to resolve disputes.