Law Times

Page 2 December 1, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com NEWS Currently, there are 29 vacancies at the Superior Court and three at the Ontario Court of Appeal. The unfilled positions have meant longer wait times in the province's busiest courtrooms, according to lawyers. Brampton, Ont., lawyer Edmond Brown says what's already a crowded court- house is now feeling the pressure of unfilled vacancies as well. His clients are waiting longer to have their day in court, and "the routine now is anywhere up to a year before you can get your trial on," he says. Unfilled judicial vacancies are "one of the factors" for the delay, he adds. "Some of the vacancies have been open for quite a while and there doesn't seem to be any ur- gency in making the appoint- ments," he says. David Sterns, second vice pres- ident of the Ontario Bar Associa- tion, says longer times to appear before judges means fewer cases coming to a settlement as well. "If there's no prospect of get- ting in front of a judge, people don't settle and that applies in every type of dispute but it's par- ticularly heartbreaking in fam- ily law disputes because people are just waiting for this elusive day in court," he says. "When [that day] comes, they focus on their case, they get down to business, and they often resolve their differences. But if you can't actually get that hear- ing or the hearing is put off too long, that's not going to happen." The situation is also far from perfect in class action law, says Sterns, adding there are just two judges dealing with these types of proceedings in Toronto. "Without new appointments and without filling these vacan- cies, the situation is becoming unworkable," he adds. Lawyer Bruce Hillyer, a par tner at Martin & Hillyer As- sociates in Burlington, Ont., says the delays have been frustrating. "How it affects my practice primarily is the inability to get timely judicial pretrials, which in one of the jurisdictions in which I practise is a precondition to get- ting a trial," says Hillyer, whose practice focuses on personal in- jury and insurance disputes. Hillyer gives an example of a client who's an amputee and has been unable to purchase the up- graded prosthetics he needs. "We had to get a private loan to help him fund that," says Hillyer, add- ing "our inability to get a judicial pretrial in a timely manner has ef- fectively delayed our ability to get this thing to the courtroom door." The situation is worse in Hal- ton region, says Hillyer, who also practises in Hamilton, Ont. "In Hamilton, it's a little easier. It's a bigger problem for me in Halton." At least part of the problem "has to be" the result of unfilled judicial vacancies, says Hillyer, adding "it is a real hindrance in getting justice for injured folks in a timely manner." The Department of Justice says the appointment process includes "broad consultations." "These appointments have always been a matter for the ex- ecutive and will continue to be. The appointment process in- cludes broad consultations with prominent members of the legal community," said Clarissa Lamb, spokeswoman for Justice Minis- ter Peter MacKay. "We will respect the confiden- tiality of the consultation process and will not comment on specific recommendations," she added. Meanwhile, some lawyers say the lack of lawyers among the gov- ernment benches may be to blame for the Justice Department's slow pace of appointments. "Unlike some governments, there are not a lot of lawyers in this government, not a lot of lawyers in cabinet, and some of the lawyers who are in cabinet have little experience as lawyers. They might have worked a year or two," says Brown. "Say [Brian] Mulroney's or [Jean] Chrétien's or [Pierre] Trudeau's governments, where the majority of the cabinet would have been lawyers, they were very aware of legal issues and they were much more understanding of the consequences of delays." Meanwhile, Smith's office says the court is doing its best to move cases along as quickly as it can. "For its part, the Superior Court has done everything that it can do to provide litigants with timely next steps in all proceed- ings. However, to ensure that cases and trials will continue to be scheduled in an orderly and timely way, the court must have its judicial complement at full strength," said Roslyn Levine, ex- ecutive legal officer to Smith. "Everyone recognizes the challenges that the current number of vacancies present. Chief Justice Smith is confident that the minister of justice un- derstands the importance to the public, the government, and the court, of promptly filling all of the Superior Court's current ju- dicial vacancies," she added. LT Let the experts help you to narrow your search and save you research time. Canadian Patent Reporter has been Canada's leading intellectual property law report since 1942. This renowned resource, available online and in print, includes precedent-setting intellectual property law judicial and board decisions from across Canada. This publication provides practitioners with the leading decisions on patent, industrial design, copyright and trade- mark law. Topical catchlines in bold print show the key issues involved in each decision. Expert case selection, editing and headnoting are a tradition with Canadian Patent Reporter. 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Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. 00226NM-A47747 Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Court 'must have its judicial complement at full strength' Continued from page 1 New exam to start in August Canada review of the curriculum at the colleges offering paralegal programs included several recommendations. They included requiring completion of a two-year general program pri- or to going into paralegal studies. In February, Convocation approved more stringent criteria for paralegal schools through enhancements related to program co-ordinators, faculty, class composition, course sequence, assessments, field placements, and reporting. According to the law society, the changes also include the introduction of a mandatory reaccreditation process requiring colleges to re- new their accreditation on a five-year cycle. Neuberger says the task force is hoping to ensure that "whatever changes that are coming down the pipe will be meaningful and ensure that the public will be properly represented no matter who they choose." The review will look at both the existing curriculum and the one that will take effect next year as per the law society's guidelines, he adds. According to Linda Pasternak, the paralegal program co-ordinator at Seneca College, the new standards will already mean "big changes" for schools across the province. "The law society is setting up new standards for colleges and all the colleges have to be re- accredited and they have to fit into certain re- quirements for the fall of 2015, so there are big changes for the way things are run," she says. Part of the new standards for paralegal li- censing will include a substantive exam in lieu of a test that previously covered ethics and pro- fessionalism only, she adds. As far as competence goes, the college is just as interested as everyone else in making sure its graduates are capable, says Pasternak, adding she'll be happy to work with the association's task force. "We like to ensure that we are teaching far more than the minimum. We have more hours than are required; we have more courses than are required. We like to think that we are train- ing our students to a very high level," says Pas- ternak, noting lawyers teach the paralegal pro- gram at Seneca College. The majority of the students at Seneca College's paralegal program already have uni- versity degrees, according to Pasternak, who notes some are lawyers trained abroad. According to Neuberger, the issue is partly with how much time is going into teaching paralegals key skills such as legal writing, legal research, and the rules of evidence. "The reality is a program has to be more than a couple weeks of criminal law, it has to be much more substantial than that," he says. "This is a serious issue that requires public attention. Right now, people are being gradu- ated with subpar education," he adds. According to Stephen Parker, president of the Ontario Paralegal Association, inconsistency in paralegal performance isn't a new issue. The law society's new licensing exam for paralegals that comes into effect in August will "hopefully ad- dress many of those issues," says Parker. "It is the general opinion that the schools and colleges are not devoting enough time to this subject area, not only to criminal law, frankly, but not enough effort into the provincial High- way Traffic Act, rules of evidence, et cetera," he adds. "I suppose it's up to the law society to force the colleges to up their curriculum. In the ab- sence of that, as long as they're teaching only a certain number of hours which are deemed to be insufficient, then nothing much is going to change," he says. The review comes as paralegals in Windsor, Ont., are facing different treatment at the court- house than their lawyer counterparts. Unlike lawyers, paralegals in Windsor are being subject to searches before they can enter the courthouse. The practice is a concern for the law society, which says all of its members should be able to enter courthouses without a search. "The law society issues identification cards to all its members, lawyers, and paralegals li- censed to provide legal services in Ontario. Entry to courthouses is typically without issue for paralegals and lawyers. There is no need for any entry search for either profession," says Roy Thomas, a spokesman for the law society. "The law society will work with local law en- forcement officials to resolve any continuing is- sue," he adds. LT Continued from page 1

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