Modernizing The Justice System: Ontario Superior Court Of Justice’s Annual Report

Modernizing The Justice System: Ontario Superior Court Of Justice’s Annual Report

Recently, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (“Court”) released its annual report, covering the Court’s activities from 2019-2023.

When the Honourable Geoffrey B. Morawetz was appointed Chief Justice on July 1, 2019, he envisioned two major transformations to modernize our judicial system: (1) an end to the paper-based justice system and (2) a complete reform of the Rules of Civil Procedure (“Rules”). While we eagerly await the proposed reforms to the Rules, this blog delves into our judicial system’s various technological transformations.

In the past five years, we have gone from paper to electronic filing, from in-person to virtual and hybrid hearings, and from sharing material in bound hard copies to sharing these materials through an online platform.

Zoom:

When in-person hearings were suspended in March of 2020, the Court needed an immediate solution; ultimately, the Ministry of the Attorney General procured Zoom. Zoom was swiftly embraced and has become a permanent feature of our justice system. The Court’s embrace of this technology and modernization is evident in the data: whereas in 2019, nearly 300,000 of the Court’s events were heard in person and 530 virtually by video, in 2023, approximately 51,000 of the Court’s events were heard in person and 162,092 of the Court’s events were heard virtually by Zoom.

JSO Portal:

The pandemic necessitated the need for an electronic online filing system. The first Justice Services Online (“JSO”) portals for Civil, Family, and Small Claims Court were launched in August of 2020. Since then, the JSO has been considerably expanded, streamlined, and improved. Again, the modernization transformation over the last several years at the Court is evident in the data: whereas in 2019, over 1.6 million submissions were filed at a counter in person and largely in paper, by 2023, over 1.5 million submissions were filed electronically through JSO.

CaseLines:

The pandemic further created the immediate need for a solution that could facilitate the sharing of documents and materials before, during, and after a hearing. As a result, the Court initiated the Ministry’s procurement of CaseLines (an electronic document sharing platform) in August 2020 and led its implementation across all regions in Ontario. Today, CaseLines is used in most hearings before the Court and its use is mandatory regardless of whether the hearing is virtual, hybrid, or in person.

While JSO, CaseLines, and Zoom were and remain necessary to support the transition from paper and in-person hearings to electronic documents and virtual hearings, these technologies were not intended to be the final technological solution for a modernized justice system.

The Ministry of the Attorney General contracted Thomson Reuters for a complete digital transformation of our case management, filing management, and hearing management systems, meaning CaseLines will be improved in a more streamlined process — only filing once and no longer requiring additional uploads.

The solution is a cloud-based Software as a Service (“SaaS”) solution — a software that will be accessible through the web. This SaaS solution will support the Court’s main functions from the initiation of a case to its disposition, namely filing, scheduling, case management, hearings, document management, and exhibit management. The solution is made up of three modules: (1) a Public Portal that will be used for e-filing and public access to information (such as daily dockets); (2) C-Track, the internal case management and scheduling system; and (3) CaseLines (soon to be renamed Case Center) which will be used for hearings.

Here are some highlights of these upcoming solutions:

  • Counsel, litigants, parties, and other justice system participants will use the solution to file court material. They will log onto the public portal and upload documents for filing with all party and any other relevant information;
  • Once submitted, staff will receive an alert on C-Track and will vet the material filed. Once vetted by court staff, and if accepted, the material will be automatically placed into the digital court record;
  • Trial coordinators will schedule the hearing using the same system;
  • As the hearing date approaches, staff will be able to push relevant documents from the court record automatically through to CaseLines;
  • Because CaseLines will be integrated with C-Track, counsel, litigants, and other justice system participants will only have to file materials once. In other words, it eliminates the two-steps now required of first filing material and later uploading to CaseLines. It also means judiciary and staff are no longer going to have to chase after missing documents;
  • During the hearing, material will be viewable through CaseLines;
  • Following the hearing, orders and endorsements will be created and distributed to parties and to the court record through the same solution;
  • The solution will also manage exhibits, meaning we will be able to admit, mark and store them into the court record; and
  • This digital solution will also enable better, more reliable, and accurate data management and reporting.

Thanks for reading!

Shawnee

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