It is undeniable that technology in today's society is progressing at a rapid pace, and as citizens of the world, we're all expected to keep up with it, whether that means having the most recent update of Facebook on one's cell phone, or it means businesses revamping themselves in order to remain competitive within the market.
For citizens, being out of touch with advancing technology means foregoing a social life (are you even friends if you don't text one another?)
For businesses—both big and small—being out of touch with advancing technology means being out of business (who remembers Blockbuster?).
However, for the Ontario courts, being out of touch with advancing technology means nothing more than further backlogging and inefficiencies—an existing problem for courts across Canada of which many Canadians are very well aware – especially after the Supreme Court's decision in R v Jordan in July 2016. For those unfamiliar with the Jordan decision, the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada described a culture of complacency around court delays, and imposed firm time limits for criminal trials. For more information, see also our previous blog post on this issue, March 28th by David Schell.
Speaking to the Jordan decision, Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley explained, "If we're taking years to get to trial, we're not doing a great job of serving the public, and I think that culture shift needs to start happening." Such a shift is necessary to lessen court delays in both the criminal and civil context. Ontario's document management system causes many such delays, and if courts were to go paperless, such delays would be considerably minimalized.
Not surprisingly, many legal experts argue that it is time for Ontario courts to join the digital age. "The state of court technology is abysmal," said Ontario Superior Court Justice Fran Kiteley. "We're decades behind other sectors." It is senseless that in some cases, at differing levels of courts, documents are required to be both physically and electronically submitted (see Rules of Civil Procedure). With the way the rules stand today, lawyers are wasting avoidable time and imposing unnecessary costs on their clients.
Although there has been some progress since in Ontario since 2014 (see Rule 14.04, which allows electronic filing of a statement of claim or a notice of action), the fact is, Ontario remains far behind the times. E-filing is permissible in several other provinces across Canada and in the United States. Numerous courts have transitioned into the digital age in order to cut costs and increase efficiency. Even the Supreme Court in India is on the path to go paperless, and hopes to achieve this goal by October.
Ultimately, technology makes every aspect of our lives more efficient and convenient (Uber eats anyone?), and in order to make right a system that's backlogged and efficient, the Ontario courts must hop on board and join the rest of us in 2017.
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