In 1985, the Canadian Judicial Council resolved that, in its view, reserved judgments should be delivered within six months after hearings, except in special circumstances.
In 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. K.G.K. 2020 SCC 7, proposed at para 76 that courts standardize a process by which counsel can inquire as to the status of a verdict in criminal judge alone trials. The majority of the SCC noted (at paras 57 and 65) that the trial judge is presumed to have struck a reasonable balance between the need for timeliness, trial fairness considerations, and practical constraints. Only where the deliberation time is “markedly longer” than reasonable will the presumption be displaced.