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From my blog: Simon Says.
In my last post I discussed the current state of the legal system, with respect to the time it takes for a case to be completed in court. With averages in 2009 of 214 days to completion and 9.2 court appearances, it’s not hard to understand why the public perception is that the system isn’t working very efficiently.
The provincial government has been aware of the dramatically increasing trend in these numbers over the past decade and in June of 2008 Attorney General Chris Bentley announced the government’s strategy to deal with this: Justice on Target.
The goal of Justice on Target is a 30% reduction in the average number of days and court appearances of 2007 numbers (which were 205 days and 9.2 appearances) by June of 2012. If successful, this would result in half a million fewer court appearances each year.
The first phase of the initiative identified seven strategies designed to move straightforward cases through the system faster, allowing more time for complex cases that require it. The first two initiatives to be implemented are dedicated prosecution and on site legal aid
In 2008, the Ontario Courts of Justice in Newmarket, North York, and London were designated as the first “Action Sites” in the phase one of the rollout. Phase two began in 2009 and included Toronto’s Old City Hall, Brampton, Windsor, Sudbury, Kitchener, Etobicoke, College Park and Scarborough.
The Justice on Target strategies were supposedly developed after consultation with all relevant participants in the criminal justice system. I can’t speak for the other participants, but I know that in policing, when someone at the top (i.e. the chief or, say, the Attorney General) asks for your input the typical PC response of management is to say what you think they want to hear. Shockingly, no one with a dissenting opinion ever seems to be asked to share their ideas. I wonder who exactly was asked for their opinions and to what extent this happened with Justice on Target.
Justice on Target is full of lofty goals and nice buzz words, but is it working? Let’s look at the numbers and then decide. Note that the only sites we can examine at this point are the three from the first phase, which began in 2008. We will use 2007 as a baseline.
In 2007 Newmarket had an average of 195 days and 8.5 appearances. In 2008 it was 218 days and 9.3 appearances, an increase of 11.8% and 9.4% respectively. 2009 showed a drop of 7.3% and 11.2% to 202 days and 8.2 appearances. Not bad…
In 2007 North York had an average of 224 days and 9.5 appearances. Statistics remained constant in 2008, but in 2009 there was a drop of 13.4% and 10.5% respectively to 194 days and 8.5 appearances. Pretty good!
London had an average of 181 days and 9.4 appearances in 2007. In 2008 the days increased by 5.5% to 191, while appearances fell 3.2% to 9.1. In 2009 days fell back 4.7% to 182, while appearances increased 3.3%, back to 2007 numbers. Ok, that’s a little confusing…
The final assessment? Although the numbers are not entirely consistent, they do look promising. I would note that since 2000 there have been periods prior to Justice on Target where there has been a decline in the numbers from the previous year, although there has definitely been an overall increasing trend. It will be interesting to see if numbers continue to decline in 2010 and beyond for these three sites and if the sites added in 2009 have similar results.
I look forward to revisiting this topic with you next year for another look.
Ontario Expands “Justice on Target” Initiative
According to the Ontario Attorney General’s website:
In 1992, it took an average of 4.3 court appearances to bring a charge to completion. By last year, this figure had more than doubled to 9.2 appearances. Over the same period, the average time needed to complete a charge has gone from 115 days to 205 days.
One of AG Chris Bentley’s prime initiatives during his office has been to address these delays in the criminal justice system.
Bentley is the Liberal M.P.P. for my riding of London West. Because of his personal knowledge of our court’s delays, Bentley made London the testing ground for his “Justice on Target” program. The program aims to identify bottlenecks and address them to reduce the number of adjournments and the amount of time it takes for criminal cases to be resolved.
The Ministry of the Attorney General has issued the following (slightly edited) press release today:
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Accelerating The Pace Of Justice
McGuinty Government Selects Three Courthouses For Next Phase Of Justice On Target Strategy
NEWS
The Ontario Courts of Justice in Newmarket, North York and London have been chosen to begin the province’s intensive, sustained effort to move cases through the justice system faster.
This is the next step in the Justice on Target strategy , to reduce unproductive criminal court delays and appearances by making more effective use of justice resources.
These courthouses have been designated as “action sites” to improve the pace of justice. Teams, led by Regional Senior Justice Bruce Durno and Senior Crown Attorney Ken Anthony, will work to quickly identify, test and implement new ideas.
Successful initiatives will then be rolled out in other courthouses across the province to help achieve the target of a 30 per cent reduction in the provincial average of days and court appearances needed to complete a criminal case. Progress towards the targets in each courthouse will be measured and reported online.
QUOTE
“Our expert teams will be working closely with all justice participants in these three courthouses initially – but the goal is to identify, test and implement approaches that will make criminal justice faster province-wide,” said Attorney General Chris Bentley. “We’re committed to making the justice system more effective for everyone – victims, witnesses, and the public who pay for it.”
QUICK FACT
* With 600,000 charges entering the system every year, saving one minute per charge could save seven years of court time.
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My personal London criminal justice pet peeve: simple disclosure requests that take six months to fulfill.
Law is Cool – Podcast #10
Show Notes
25:29 Total Running Time
0:16 Thomas Wisdom and Omar Ha-Redeye introduce themselves, with interviews from David Aylward and Hon. Chris Bentley.
1:14 Omar discusses the 7 Year Law Degree from Jordan Furlong, while Thomas mentions the importance of learning on the job.
2:25 Thomas shares his new smoking habit that he picked up during law school.
4:50 Omar introduces David Aylward, founder and director of COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance, on how to transition out of a typical legal career into other sectors.
5:22 David Aylward describes his educational, legal and political career in Congress and the U.S. House of Representatives.
6:37 David Aylward relates how the discipline of the legal education and the focus on the meaning of words helped him outside the law and creating a non-profit promoting agency interoperability.
7:52 David Aylward explains how in responding to any emergency there is a need for information exchange and a system that allows voice, data and video sharing.
9:31 Public agencies don’t look at the private or commercial sector enough for communications capability and have a higher degree of cultural resistance to sharing, but technically still have similar challenges.
12:02 David Aylward provides career advise on how to psychologically prepare on transitioning into non-traditional legal careers where the essence of the work isn’t the law.
14:42 There are lots of opportunities in North America, and anyone who has a law degree has lots of choices.
15:56 Thomas describes his trip to Florence, Italy and the 10 year delays in the tort system there.
16:28 Omar introduces Min. Chis Bentley, the Attorney-General of Ontario.
17:25 The Attorney-General of Ontario relates his experience teaching at the University of Western Ontario faculty of law.
18:02 Min. Bentley explains the access to justice issue, and changes his office have made to the criminal justice system such as the Justice on Target program.
21:02 Min. Bentley says we have a good human rights system and shares groundbreaking initiatives they have undertaken starting June 30, 2008 which will strengthen human rights in Ontario.
22:22 Min. Bentley explains why human rights are so important to our society, which values optimism and opportunity without barriers and discrimination.
24:52 Omar signs off.
