I wrote an article about two months ago entitled "
The End of Civil Jury Trials? Jury Notice Struck Due to
COVID-19." At the time, I discussed the case of Belton
v. Spencer 2020 ONSC 5327,1 wherein the motion
judge held that the defendant's right to a trial by jury was
outweighed by the need to provide the plaintiff with more timely
access to justice (the COVID-19 related delay in that case being a
year to eighteen months).
There have been other cases where a jury notice was also struck
(see, for example, Louis v. Poitras, 2020 ONSC 5301).
Conversely, in the decision of Jiang v. Toronto Transit
Commission, 2020 ONSC 5727, Justice Wilson did not strike the
jury notice on the grounds that Toronto was in a position to hold
jury trials.
