How long does a contested passing of accounts typically take to resolve in Ontario court?

There's no reliable "typical" timeline to point to here — how long a contested passing of accounts takes depends heavily on factors like how many objections are filed, how complex the estate's finances are, how backed up the specific court office is, and whether the parties are willing to narrow the issues or insist on litigating every entry. Because of that variation, it's genuinely misleading to promise a specific number of months.

What does affect timing predictably is preparation and cooperation. A trustee who files clean, well-organized accounts with proper supporting records tends to move through the process faster than one whose accounts raise obvious questions. Similarly, objections that are specific and well-founded tend to resolve faster than broad, vague ones that require extensive back-and-forth before anyone knows exactly what's actually being disputed.

Because contested estate litigation can genuinely run much longer than anyone involved expects, especially where relationships between beneficiaries and the trustee have broken down, anyone heading into a passing of accounts dispute should plan for the possibility of a lengthy process rather than assuming a quick resolution, and should ask their lawyer for a realistic sense of the specific court office's current pace rather than a general industry estimate.