Law Times - sample

Page 10 May 29, 2017 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com Time saved by providing disclosure electronically? More tech investments needed, say lawyers BY SHANNON KARI For Law Times T he criminal courts in Ontario may be one of the few workplaces in 2017 where a fax ma- chine is still an important tool of the trade. Advances in technology that are almost universally used in everyday life are not necessarily available in the administration of the criminal courts in this province. Fax machines, incompatible police software, mountains of paper and in-person discussions for nearly every matter are com- mon, while e-filing, Internet ac- cess and methods of accessing information, such as the cloud, are not. Many defence lawyers say there is still too much reliance on in-person appearances in court for administrative issues and a lack of desire to use technology to make the process more ef- ficient, as other provinces are starting to do. "If you want to get to know people in the courts, Ontario is better. There is a lot of waiting around. It is very social," says Alan Pearse, a lawyer who spe- cializes in defending impaired driving cases in multiple prov- inces, including Ontario. "It you want to get legal work done, Alberta is much better," says Pearse. A significant difference in the two provinces is that, in Alberta, the provincial government has implemented a practice where disclosure in criminal cases can be accessed by defence counsel from a secure online service. "There is a record as to what happened, a record as to when it was ready and when it was downloaded," Pearse explains. "In Ontario, it is turned over on a disc or printed material," he says. Ottawa defence lawyer Mi- chael Spratt says it would save court time and money to pro- vide disclosure electronically. "It could be on the cloud or a secure server. You should not have to attend court to pick up a CD," says Spratt, a partner at Ab- ergel Goldstein & Partners LLP. Tyler Smith, a partner at Hicks Adams LLP in Toronto, says he has on occasion been able to download disclosure from a secure link sent by the Crown's office in Oshawa, Ont. The link expires after a cer- tain number of days and Oshawa is the only Crown office where this way of accessing disclosure has been available, Smith says. Video disclosure such as state- ments to police or surveillance images are normally copied on to a DVD and the enclosed play- er frequently does not work with certain types of computers, such as ones made by Apple. "You have to buy software," says Smith, who uses an Apple- made computer. One exception is York region, where the police video disclo- sure "plays on all computers" and is much more user-friendly than that provided by other Toronto- area police forces, says Smith. Along with making it easier to obtain disclosure, provinces such as Alberta and Saskatch- ewan have systems in place to deal with administrative mat- ters leading up to a trial either online or by phone, rather than in court, says Pearse. In Alberta, in most of his cas- es, "I never set foot into court un- til a trial date. You can set a trial date online," explains Pearse. In Ontario, even if dates for trial are arranged by email in co- ordination with the Crown and the trial co-ordinator, that is not the final step, Spratt explains. "I still have to attend in court, pick up a piece of paper and file it with the court. "It has not eliminated a step," he says. The same process exists for filing defence materials, such as a motion, with the court and the Crown. FOCUS Heather Pringle says Crown attorneys and judges have the discretion to accept fil- ing electronically, but it depends on the people involved. 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