Clients, courts and the computer age: N.B. justice system gets a revamp

Allyson McCormack · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 16, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

The New Brunswick justness strategy is being brought into the integer property with a six-year plan to modernize the tribunal strategy through the summation of physics filing and improved in-court technology, arsenic good arsenic greater nationalist entree for aforesaid representation. 

Justice Minister Rob McKee said close present "everything is fundamentally a insubstantial file," and those who enactment successful the tribunal strategy person been calling for change. 

"It was the fig 1 precedence that we heard from each the main judges, from the 3 levels of court, that were pounding the array that the integer translation is agelong overdue."

McKee said the $32 cardinal dollar task volition marque the justness strategy much businesslike and idiosyncratic friendly, and make access to records easier and yet reduce delays.

Video conferencing will be up to the discretion of the judge, and McKee said successful immoderate cases could beryllium utilized alternatively of bringing a captive to the courthouse. It could besides chopped down connected the magnitude of clip a lawyer would person to walk successful tribunal waiting for a case to beryllium called by the judge. 

Fixing the backlog

The plan is portion of a wider inaugural to tackle an overburdened tribunal system. For years, Crown prosecutors person been raising the alarm astir delays due to the fact that of shortages successful the ineligible profession, starring to much charges being stayed. 

At a quality league past period astir the 2016 Supreme Court of Canada's Jordan decision, which acceptable timelines for trials, New Brunswick Court of Appeal Chief Justice Marc Richard told reporters that gathering those deadlines is problematic, and often means civilian cases get bumped.  

WATCH | The determination to marque N.B. courts much accessible and efficient:

The Jordan determination says that trials successful provincial tribunal should beryllium implicit wrong 18 months of a complaint being laid, portion it's 30 months astatine the Court of King's Bench, which holds assemblage trials. 

Richard said that in provincial court, they treble oregon triple publication trials, truthful that if there's a resolution, clip isn't wasted. 

"But erstwhile you deliberation astir the interaction of that, if a authoritative has to get acceptable for 3 trials connected Monday greeting astatine 9:00, that's a batch of enactment lone to find retired that 2 of them collapse."

When asked however exertion could assistance augment the system, helium said "Do you person a mates of hours?"

Richard said helium has been pushing for amended usage of exertion since helium became main justice.

"We astatine the Court of Appeal ... instituted galore years agone an e-filing strategy that's precise archaic, done emails," helium said. "The sheer fig of cases makes it truthful they don't person the unit to grip that. We request a due e-filing system, case-management system in this province."

Additional Crown authoritative positions

There is besides an expanding measurement of integer evidence, including from constabulary body-worn cameras, that has compounded the work of Crown prosecutors who are already abbreviated staffed.

McKee said that is being addressed with the summation of six caller positions to instrumentality connected the caller role of body-worn camera evidence.

Those caller positions volition bring the full fig of Crown prosecutors to 98. There are inactive 22 vacancies, but McKee's bureau said offers person been accepted for eight of those jobs.

New impaired driving rules that took effect successful January person besides diverted astir two-thirds of each cases distant from the tribunal system.

Between Jan. 1 and April 10, much than 190 drivers were issued the caller contiguous roadside suspension. 

That includes having their licence instantly suspended for seven days and their conveyance impounded for three days, with a longer duration for higher blood-alcohol content.

In the aforesaid clip period, 101 radical were fixed an administrative suspension and a pending tribunal date for driving nether the influence. 

Electronic filing agelong overdue

Marc Richard, enforcement manager of the Law Society of New Brunswick, has been calling for these changes for years to drawback up with the remainder of the country. 

"We're successful 2025 close now. The tribunal strategy is inactive utilizing its insubstantial strategy crossed each the antithetic judicial districts and it's not practical, it doesn't enactment well."

He said erstwhile Covid struck, it exposed conscionable however unprepared the tribunal strategy was to woody with cases portion inactive successful lockdown. He said email conscionable wasn't cutting it. 

"You request to person a bully integer level to person those documents, to stock those documents and files with the judges astir the province."

Cost savings for the public

Richard said the changes volition besides chopped down connected question expenses. For example, a lawyer would nary longer person to thrust to the courthouse — sometimes successful different metropolis — to record documents, astatine the client's expense. 

With improved video conferencing, a lawyer could look virtually to debar extended question oregon mediocre upwind conditions, if the justice permits. 

Richard said radical representing themselves would besides person amended entree to accusation astir their case. And for those trying to record an uncontested divorce, that could beryllium done electronically, without the request for a lawyer oregon judge.

"It's truly to find a mode to alteration the strategy to truly trim the clip for the justice to beryllium progressive successful the case," helium said.

"It's going to beryllium amended for lawyers, it's going to beryllium amended for their clients. It's going to beryllium amended for the self-represented litigants and besides for the judges and the full tribunal strategy to determination guardant successful a mode that truly reduces the backlog that we've been seeing successful the courts."