Law Times

Page 12 OctOber 2, 2017 • Law times www.lawtimesnews.com FOCUS Medico/Legal Your case is too important. You deserve the right EXPERT WITNESS. We offer unparallelled expertise for your most catastrophic injury cases. Direct access to hundreds of specialists from all areas of healthcare expertise. A top provider of cost of care reports for your most catastrophically injured clients. More than 2,000 malpractice, personal injury and class action cases. More than 300 lawyer clients assisted. Serving lawyers across Canada. Also, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Caribbean. LEARN MORE: CONNECTMLX.COM EXPERTS@CONNECTMLX.COM TOLL FREE: 855-278-9273 Since 2001, we've become a leader in Expert Witness Services in Canada. onnect Medical_LT_June12_17.indd 1 2017-06-06 1:07 PM "We will send materials over to another firm that can be ac- cessed securely over a cloud," he says. The use of technology and how it impacts on a law- yer's practice is a topic at every legal conference he attends, says Sauvé. Some lawyers in Ottawa, for example, have made tablets available to jurors in civil trials to access all relevant documents, rather than print out thousands of pages of paper, he notes. When it comes to the poli- cies of court services in Ontario, though, in-person attendance with a trial co-ordinator is re- quired to set a trial date and even schedule motions and can in- volve emails or phone calls back and forth. "Why can't we access a system to see if a date is available and click on it?" asks Sauvé. "There should also be a da- tabase to file and retrieve docu- ments," he adds. The level of technology available can also differ widely throughout the province and may depend on how recently a courthouse was constructed. There is Wi-Fi access in court- rooms in the Ottawa court- house if you are a member of the County of Carleton Law Association, which provides the service, Sauvé says. Lawyers in Toronto must try to set up a hot spot to have on- line access in nearly every court- room, with a few exceptions. "Even seeking to connect your laptop to a video screen, that can be dicey," says MacKinnon. There are some civil and commercial courtrooms in To- ronto that are equipped with the necessary technology so a person can testify from another location through a secure video link. Outside of the city, that is not necessarily the case. Rosenstein says he is acting in a trial in Hamilton and has a court order permitting an Alber- ta-based witness to testify by vid- eo, since the evidence is expected to last less than 30 minutes. "We don't have those facilities," Rosenstein says he was recently told by court staff. Ultimately, the witness was able to testify by video link in an electronically equipped courtroom normally used for criminal matters. While there are many issues to be resolved in terms of the civil courts in Ontario and tech- nology, two pilot projects were announced in recent months to make e-filing possible in certain jurisdictions. A six-month pilot project launched by the Ministry of the Attorney General permits the online filing of a statement of claim in Superior Court in Brampton, London, Newmar- ket, Ottawa and Sudbury. A Notice of Action and a few other types of documents can also be filed and paid for on- line as part of the project. In the Central East region, the Superior Court joined with the minis- try this summer to start a pilot project to permit most "long mo- tions" materials to be filed elec- tronically, in civil, criminal and family court. The materials must be stored on a USB stick and a paper copy must also be filed. The electron- ic versions are to be submitted in PDF and Microsoft Word format. LT one is to be permitted to pro- ceed. The legislation directs that we place substantial value on the freedom of expression over defa- mation in the public sphere," wrote Lederer in a decision is- sued on July 25. "The policy proposition is to encourage public discourse. It is not to control the quality of the debate. Free expression by definition is not to be limited within any parameters set by the perceived value or substantive attributes of what was said or published," explained Lederer. The action involved a libel lawsuit filed by a company that owns a gravel pit northeast of Toronto against an area resident who made critical comments on a closed Facebook group. The company continued with its ac- tion even though the resident apologized as instructed by the plaintiff 's lawyer. In addition to full indemnity costs as required by the legislation, Lederman also ordered the company to pay $7,500 in damages to the resident. The judge, in his ruling, was quite critical of the company for continuing with its action against a resident who expressed con- cerns about the potential local health impact of the gravel pit. "If this action is allowed to proceed there is no way of know- ing how many people interested in this issue, or for that matter any other public concern, will feel intimidated and not take part for fear of being the sub- ject of a similar law suit. The implications of this concern are broad," the judge stated. Sotos was lead counsel for Mo- hammed in the Superior Court action. He says he cannot talk about the specifics of the case be- cause the company has filed an appeal of Lederer's decision. Some of the anti-SLAPP measures are unfair, say critics, such as the re- quirement to award full indemni- ty costs to a successful defendant, absent exceptional circumstanc- es. Sotos disagrees and believes it is a check on legal actions aimed at stif ling public criticism. "People who bring SLAPP suits are often used to throwing their weight around," he says. Gonsalves agrees and says that to date there does not ap- pear to be any sign that legiti- mate libel lawsuits cannot go forward. "This regime is f lexible enough. I have not seen cases tossed prematurely," she says. The new measures state that a hearing must take place within 60 days after a defendant files a Notice of Motion under the Act. Both lawyers say they hope the Court of Appeal will stress the need for lower courts to comply with this requirement. LT Continued from page 10 System is dated Guidance will help Continued from page 11 Iain MacKinnon says that, 'unless there is an allocation of significant resources' in improving technology in the civil courts, the situation will not become any better. Founding Partner Bronze Sponsor Hosted in Partnership with GALA DINNER AND AWARDS PRESENTATION Honouring Canada's Leading Lawyers Under 40 – from law firms and in-house – this event will pay tribute to the Rising Stars of the legal community. EMCEE Jean Cumming, Editor-in-Chief, Lexpert THE FAIRMONT ROYAL YORK HOTEL, TORONTO Thursday, November 16, 2017 5:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception 7:00 p.m. Gala Dinner and Awards Presentation Dress: Business attire LEXPERT.CA/RISING-STARS To purchase tickets or to sponsor the event, contact: MediaSolutions.Sales@ thomsonreuters.com Untitled-7 1 2017-09-27 2:38 PM

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