Originally published in Lawyers Weekly — Focus on
Civil Litigation, May 27, 2011
Under the Ontario Police Services Act, documents
prepared as a result of a public complaint against a police officer
are inadmissible in a civil action. In two recent decisions, the
Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal have reached seemingly
irreconcilable conclusions on the use that can be made of such
information in the context of a lawsuit. The law is currently in an
uncertain state, with potential implications for other areas in
which administrative and court proceedings may overlap.
In Penner v. Niagara (Police Services Board), [2010]
O.J. No. 4046, the Ontario Court of Appeal considered whether
findings made in a police disciplinary proceeding preclude
re-litigating those same issues in a civil action. The plaintiff in
that case had previously filed a complaint under the Police
Services Act alleging that two officers unlawfully arrested
him and that they used unnecessary
