Ontario Government Proposes Change for Civil Jury Trials | CTV YourMorning

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province in line with most other
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jurisdictions in this country critics
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worry about how fast the courts appear
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to be moving forward with a change that
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could become permanent lawyer Tandy
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Walker is joining me now to discuss good
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morning to you nice to see you good
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morning thank you for having me okay so
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let’s start off with the benefits of
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jury trials and civil cases and the
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downsize talk to us about that well the
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benefits of jury cases that you are
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judged by your peers and so really that
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is the main benefit there are many
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disadvantages what is that they’re just
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not enough judges to deal with trials
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and jury trials take a little bit longer
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because it takes time to explain to
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legal principles and as a result you
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don’t have as many cases being put
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through say the pipeline another
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disadvantage is the cost there’s a high
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cost to people who are paying their
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lawyers for a jury trial because the
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jury trial takes longer another problem
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is that now is to the lip delay there
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there aren’t they are not dealing with
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any jury trials at the moment until at
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least September and we don’t know when
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that will actually end up and you want
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to quite a few disadvantage so you’ve
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said that you want to see Tana the
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province slowed down on making these
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kinds of changes right now how come I
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don’t believe a permanent change is
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necessary
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my thoughts are you can get rid of jury
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trials at the moment see how it turns
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out
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when colvett 19 is over there’s a
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vaccination it’s able to be
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mass-produced then you can say okay is
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this something that we should continue
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on or we do we need to go back to jury
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trials because it is important for
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access to justice to be had to have the
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option to be judged by your peers the
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only province where there is no jury
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trial at all for civil cases is Quebec
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every other province you have the right
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at least to ask for a jury trial since
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1990 the Ministry of the Attorney
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General reports the backlog of civil
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trials across the province has doubled
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if we don’t eliminate jury trials Tanya
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how can we alleviate this backlog in the
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longer term my thoughts are technology I
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have access to technology where a juror
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is able to participate in the trial from
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at home that’s the only
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reason but I really think that trials
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that are scheduled by jury at the moment
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the civil trials it really should be
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dealt with by a judge because the
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backlog is gonna be tremendous yeah I
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can’t even imagine and one of the things
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you just mentioned quick access to
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justice that’s being compromised because
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of the delays during this pandemic talk
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to us about not only the the cost for
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the cost but also other issues with that
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problem
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another issue other issues with that
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problem is that our witnesses the
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memories fade so by the time you
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actually get to trial your witness might
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not be around or might not even remember
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what happened
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you have spoilage of evidence that’s a
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possibility you know there’s so many
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issues that you can have and therefore
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you may not get the access to justice
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that you really deserve jury trials you
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don’t really have a right to it it’s not
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in the Charter of Rights and freedom as
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it is with criminal trials where you
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might have a sentence of more than five
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years and section 13 s protects you and
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allows you to get a jury trial and also
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you with a criminal trial you’re
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supposed to try that within a certain
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period of time that’s not the same for a
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civil trial you can have up to five
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years I’ve actually had trials where
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it’s taken five years to get the trial
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and it’s very difficult to find the
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witnesses to get them to testify it’s a
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it’s a headache so I really think in
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terms of access to justice elimination
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just temporary elimination of jury
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trials should be considered and then
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reevaluate that in a year or so to see
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if that should be a permanent change
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Tanya Walker always good to see you
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thanks so much for your insight thank
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you for having me all right