Justice, Making It Fast and Affordable

By 250 News

(from left to right) Deputy Attorney General Allan Seckel, Chief Justice Donald Brenner and Prince George Chamber President Micheal Kerr  chat  following  a luncheon  presentation

So your neighbour has  trimmed off a limb of one of your trees.  You want to  have the matter resolved and you decide to go to court. 

In B.C. 98 % of  civil cases are  resolved before  they actually get to court,  but  are the  cases wrapping up  because  the  two sides are able to reach a suitable agreement, or is it because the litigants simply cannot afford to take the matter  to court?  "That is a very good question and that is a question that troubles me" says Chief Justice Donald Brenner

He says cases settle for three reasons:  "The first two are positive, the last one is the one that concerns me" .  The Chief Justice says  more cases are being resolved  through increasing use of alternate dispute resolution methods,   and  efforts by the Court to  assist the parties and resolve the dispute.  "The third one, the one that troubles me, is cost, and  I worry that people are not able to proceed through to a final formal decision in their case because  it is just  too expensive, and that is what we are trying to address.'

In B.C. there have been  6 words  used to describe the civil court process "Too expensive, too complex, too slow" The  proposed  changes  to the process are designed to  reduce costs and speed up the process.

 One change would  see limits on the  time spent on examinations for discovery, a process that can go take a great  deal of time when the meter is running  for all involved in that process with the litigants paying  the  bill. 

There is also  a suggestion for something called the "Hub".  Consider it a one stop spot for those entering the system to find out  how their particular dispute could be resolved. It would be a multi-disciplinary assessment  service, a legal "triage" if you like that will diagnose the legal problem and provide a referral.

The changes also call for limits to be placed on the length of trials and the addition of case planning which means  lawyers for both sides will  have to open lines of communication  to see how a case would proceed  rather than, as Deputy Attorney General Allan  Seckel remarked, lawyers saying "lets get out the spitballs and have some fun".

There will be a draft of the new rules ready by June of this year.  The  Deputy Attorney General Allan Seckel says that will give the legal profession time to look over the  changes "kick the tires and provide  feed back".  Then more consultation and feedback through the fall,  legislation likely in the spring of 2008,  and implementation  by 2009 - 2010.

Chief Justice Brenner says  it will never be inexpensive  to litigate a case in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, "Our Court deals with serious issues and issues that  are very serious to the parties.  Of course we always like to see them retain trained professionals  to advance their case, but what we hope to do is make it more affordable and more efficient."

Feedback  is  critical says Deputy Attorney General Allan Seckel, "Standing silent is not helpful to us". 

The complete  recommendations can be viewed at  www.bcjusticereview.org or suggestions for change can be e-mailed to  civiljustice@bcjusticereview.org

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