On Friday, one of the many storylines that emerged from last year’s messy Ottawa Senators’ season will enter a new forum, as a Toronto court will hear an application brought by Monika Caryk, the partner of former Senator Mike Hoffman, against Melinda Karlsson, the wife of Senators’ captain Erik Karlsson. Caryk is seeking what’s known as a Norwich order, requiring that Ms. Karlsson “…disclose and provide any and all information and knowledge…that is in any way relevant to [Ms. Karlsson’s] allegations that [Ms. Caryk] has engaged in cyberbullying against [Ms. Karlsson].”



Some explanation is probably helpful.



So is there going to be a trial?



Not in the sense of witnesses in the box, no. (In Canada, we have a witness box, not a stand. Old Canadian lawyers will bark at you if call it the stand because of your exposure to American television.) An application can be thought of as a paper trial. The evidence is...