Justice System Goes Further Into Digital Age After Pandemic, Downey Says

If the past 16 months have proven anything, it’s that change can happen, even in the notoriously slow-moving justice system, the Ontario attorney general has found.

“I have learned that all justice partners can work together quickly to resolve issues,” said Doug Downey, the Member of Parliament for Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte who has carried the justice file throughout. pandemic. “I think before the pandemic there were structural obstacles to being able to go that fast.”

Attorney General of Ontario highlights a host of new processes implemented in the justice system in the wake of the pandemic that have helped eliminate the paper and digital processes that now allow courts to enter home offices .

Dial-a-court, e-filing, and e-Intake all seem to have entered at lightning speed into a system that Downey described earlier as working in another century, and some aspects of the start of another century.

“Most of them are going to stay,” said Downey Barrie today Changes. “We’re putting real money into it. We install the computer programs, hardware, software and we change the processes to keep them.

And he promises that there is more to come.

Remote courts, which allow participants and observers to connect via a computer or a hybrid mix of in-person and online hearings, continue to grow with the ongoing construction of the system, which includes more equipment. courtrooms, he said.

The e-Intake digital platform piloted in Barrie and Orillia two years ago, allowing police officers to lay criminal charges electronically, has been gradually rolled out elsewhere in the province. It is designed to allow a continuous flow of information between the police and the courts, again intended to reduce paper.

“We take some of these parts that we know work and expand them. And the digital management system, too, is the second part. … There are better ways of doing things. There is absolutely no reason to do the old way on paper.

And maybe even fax machines will become a thing of the past.

Downey also explains how the rules of civil procedure still referred to the flow of information by telegraph. This has since been replaced by the ability to send documents by email.

One of the supporting features is the introduction of CaseLines, a cloud-based document sharing and storage online hearing platform for remote and in-person court proceedings deployed across the province.

He mentions the provincial court system, which receives a boost of $ 28.5 million with a particular focus on the Landlord and Tenant Board. With 80,000 to 100,000 files per year, it is considered the most important.

“It will improve the experience for homeowners and tenants facing issues that existed before the pandemic. This is a fundamental change that I wanted to make anyway, ”said Downey, adding that he had already reached an agreement with his counterpart in British Columbia to adopt their system which has been in use for about five years.

And while the jury is still out on recent discussions about whether juries are really needed for civil trials, Downey says there has been progress throughout the jury recruitment and selection process, allowing for a online preselection.

The seamless program is intended to eventually enable email communication for those who have been called in to be part of the jury.

Justice centers, which bring together legal, health and social services to respond to individual issues, are established outside the courtroom. Simcoe County doesn’t have one yet, but Downey suggests we stay tuned.

“I spoke to our police chief about the concept and there’s a real appetite for it in Barrie, so we’re having this conversation,” he says.

And then there is the problem of arrears – a pre-existing problem that has been exasperated by the pandemic in criminal, civil and family cases.

Downey says the first thing to do is measure the extent of the problem.

There has been some movement to alleviate the number of cases waiting to be heard with technological developments and remote hearings. Some initiatives have also been taken to eliminate cases where possible.

“We made a few adjustments early on because we knew there would be challenges there,” he says.

Crown attorneys, for example, have been given the green light to exercise their discretion by allowing people charged with first-time impaired driving to plead, often in exchange for a reckless driving charge.

Downey says he’s confident the backlog in criminal courts is manageable. In the meantime, the priorities of civil courts and jury trials have yet to be established.

Every area of ​​the law, he says, has seen structural and content changes and not only will the justice system not return to what it was before the pandemic, but it continues to move forward.

“We’re not stopping,” says Downey. “We’re really just getting started. There is so much that can be done to get the system to a place where it meets the needs of the average Ontarians.

He referred to the Auditor General’s report indicating that the system was heavily reliant on paper. Now, he says, instead of relying on paper for 80 percent of the material, some regions are seeing 80 percent of filings made electronically.

“There are really some really big pieces that have been ignored for too long. We just have to keep innovating and not just talk about these things, ”Downey said.

“There is no reason to go back.”