The Quebec chronology-of-facts schema
Version 1.0.0 · published 1 August 2026 · CC BY 4.0 · French and English
In brief
An open, versioned, bilingual schema for structuring a chronology of facts for a Quebec legal file. Four fields per fact — the date, what happened, where, the evidence — and three usage rules that make all the difference. Freely reusable (CC BY 4.0) by a clinic, an app, an organisation or a spreadsheet.
Why a schema, and why this one
Every serious source says the same thing: present your facts in chronological order. None says how to structure that work so it serves before a Quebec court. This schema encodes three choices, each anchored in law:
- Every fact carries the date of the fact, not the date it was recorded. An undated fact goes to the end; it is never invented.
- Every fact is linked — or explicitly not linked — to its evidence. The burden of proof rests on the person advancing the fact (art. 2803 C.C.Q.). A fact with no exhibit is not a defect: proof may be made by any means and testimony counts (art. 2857). But the empty field must stay visible — it is the work list.
- The schema implies no admissibility conclusion. Evidence obtained in breach of fundamental rights can be excluded of the court's own motion (art. 2858).
The schema, field by field
| Field | Required | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
faits[].fait | yes | What happened — one factual sentence, no legal characterization |
faits[].date | no | The date of the fact, ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) |
faits[].lieu | no | Where, or by what means (email, phone…) |
faits[].preuve | no — and absence is meaningful | The exhibit code (e.g. P-3) or its description |
affaire, dossier | no | Case name and file number |
Methodology and limits
- Origin: the schema formalizes the data model of our public chronology tool, exercised by automated tests (sorting, wrapping, printing) and checked against articles 2803, 2804, 2857 and 2858 C.C.Q., read on LégisQuébec on 1 August 2026.
- Scope: Quebec. The Civil Code references do not hold elsewhere.
- Limits: the schema structures information; it makes nothing admissible, calculates no deadline and replaces no court form.
- Versioning: the version lives in the file (
1.0.0). Any field change will be a major version; this page keeps the log. - Corrections: found an error? The contact form is enough — the correction is published here, dated.
Reuse and citation
CC BY 4.0: reuse, adapt, integrate — commercially included — with attribution. Citation format:
Preuve en main, “Quebec chronology-of-facts schema”, v1.0.0, 2026,
https://preuveenmain.ca/donnees/schema-chronologie.json, CC BY 4.0
To claim conformance, the three usage rules in the $comment field are mandatory —
notably: never hide a fact with no evidence.