A little-known way to get litigation into the JDR program is to simply write to the chief (or associate chief) justice and ask to have a case resolved by a senior judge in a special JDR hearing. In Alberta, such JDR case assignments have become known as Special Judicial Dispute Resolution (SJDRs), or SPECs. If the chief justice agrees, the next step is to have the scheduling manager allocate time for a senior justice to conduct the SPEC. In Alberta, this practice is fairly common and saves a great deal of trial time. This chapter explains how and why the chief justice asks a senior judge to do special JDRs ad hoc. Chapter 17 gives examples of real SPEC cases and how they resolved.

In pre-SPEC days, when the chief justice asked a senior JDR judge to take on a challenging case, it was one that would take at least three to four weeks of trial time. SPECs became the label for the most difficult cases, flagged for being in and out of motions court, special hearings and even trials to appeals and back again. They tend to involve numerous counsel and claims in the millions of dollars. It is not uncommon for such cases to actually take a decade to complete. So, but for the success of JDR SPEC, the trial time allocated to these difficult cases has been measured in years.

The triaging and docketing of SPEC cases depends on several metrics: heightened animosity between parties, or counsel; the amounts at stake in the controversy; the weeks of trial time likely to be required; the stress on judicial resources at the time; and other unique considerations like the involvement of third parties, counterclaims and multiple jurisdictional complications.

At the outset, the chief justice, or senior judge (on their behalf, with approval of the chief justice) writes a letter to counsel stating that a SPEC justice had been assigned to their case by the chief justice and inviting them to a one-hour court meeting to discuss and develop the SPEC procedures that will be used.

With input from the parties, the SPEC justice tailor-makes the JDR procedure, aiming for something between a normal JDR and a full-fledged trial.