British Columbia courts are
working to address the reasons
for and consequences of the
increased length and complexity
of both civil and criminal cases,
the province’s Court of Appeal
chief justice says.
Lance Finch told a University
of Victoria Faculty of Law audience recently that criminal trials
in both the Provincial Court and
the Supreme Court of British
Columbia are, in general, much
longer than they were 50 years
ago, or even 30 years ago.
The chief justice said that
when he was an articling student in 1962-63, a typical murder case could be completed in a
week or less. Now, they can take
months or years, he said, pointing to the Robert Pickton serial
killing case.
“The Charter of Rights and
Freedoms has had a signifi-
cant impact on the length of
trials,” Justice Finch said. “It is
usual now for the first part of
the trial process to be taken up
with voir dires on alleged
breaches of Charter rights and,
hence, upon the admissibility or
inadmissibility of evidence
obtained after, or as a result of,
those breaches.”
Finch said criminal conduct
also seems more complex than
in the past.
SBORISOV / DREAMSTIME.COM
LSUC, in hiring mode,
THOMAS CLARIDGE TORONTO
keeping a lid on fees
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A budget passed unanimously
by benchers of the Law Society of
Upper Canada will see Ontario’s
36,000 practising lawyers
charged a total of $5,175 in fees
and insurance premiums in 2012,
up just $41 from this year but
more than $1,000 above the
$4,153 they faced in 2009.
The fees portion of the total will
be $1,826, made up of a general
fee of $1,326 plus $222 for the
society’s compensation fund, $75
in capital costs and $203 for the
operation of Library Co. Inc. The
2012 base premium for LawPRO,
the Lawyers Professional Indemnity Corp., was set earlier at
$3,350—unchanged from 2011
but up from $2,450 in 2009.
Paralegals, who don’t have a
mandatory insurance program,
will pay $982 in fees, an $18 drop
in general fees being more than
offset by a $43 increase in charges for the compensation fund.
Already the subject of a closed-
door debate, the budget passed
quickly, with the only criticism
directed at the fact the law soci-
ety plans to hire additional staff
to handle an expected six per cent
growth in complaints, and added
workload related to the introduc-
tion this year of 12 hours of man-
datory continuing professional
development (CPD).
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