What is Justice on Target?

Justice on Target is a four-year strategy to reduce the provincial average number of days and appearances required to complete a criminal case by 30 per cent.

The strategy is about justice participants working collaboratively to get to decision points faster and to complete non-complex cases quicker. Doing so creates the capacity for justice participants to direct more attention to serious and difficult cases, and to better serve witnesses, victims and their families.

Launched on June 3, 2008, the strategy is now underway in every criminal court in the Ontario Court of Justice. For the first time in Ontario’s history, justice participants are working in a way that respects their independent roles and encourages collaboration.

How are you implementing Justice on Target?

Local and Regional Leadership Teams have been established in all of Ontario’s 57 criminal court sites. These Local Leadership Teams are made up of representatives of all justice participant groups, including Judges, Justices of the Peace, Defence Counsel, Crown Attorneys, Police, Court Services staff, Duty Counsel, Corrections, Victim Services workers, Legal Aid Ontario and other organizations.

What do these leaders do?

These local leaders are sharing ideas with each other, learning from experiences in other communities and implementing new initiatives in criminal courts across Ontario in order to:

• Help the people involved in a criminal case make appropriate decisions earlier in the process
• Resolve straightforward, non-complex cases quickly
• Reduce unnecessary court appearances and delay.

Criminal court statistics are available so that you can follow the progress of the strategy and see the impact on your courthouse by looking up your local community on the map on this website.

When were Ontario’s criminal courts engaged in the Justice on Target strategy?

The strategy was rolled out in all 57 of Ontario’s criminal courts using a “wave” approach.

Wave 1 (Engaged Nov/Dec 2008)	London, Newmarket, North York
Wave 2 (Engaged June 2009)	Brampton, Old City Hall
Wave 3 (Engaged November 2009)	College Park, 1911 Eglinton Ave East (Scarborough), 2201 Finch Ave West (Etobicoke), Windsor, Kitchener (includes Cambridge), Sudbury (includes Espanola)
Wave 4 (Two phases engaged June and September 2010)	June 2010: Oshawa, Barrie (includes Orillia), Ottawa, Peterborough Sept. 2010: St. Catharines, Welland, Milton, Hamilton, Thunder Bay
Wave 5 (Engaged by Regional Committees Winter/Spring 2010)	Central East: Bracebridge, Cobourg, Lindsay Central West: Brantford, Cayuga, Orangeville, Norfolk East: Belleville, Brockville, Cornwall, Kingston, Napanee, L’Orignal, Pembroke, Perth, Picton Northeast: Cochrane, Elliot Lake, Gore Bay, Haileybury, Kirkland Lake, North Bay, Parry Sound, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins Northwest: Dryden, Kenora, Fort Frances Toronto: 311 Jarvis St West: Chatham, Goderich, Guelph, Owen Sound, Sarnia, St. Thomas, Stratford, Walkerton, Woodstock

How current is the information on this website?

Transparency and accountability are among the hallmarks of our strategy. The most current rolling 12-month statistics will be posted twice a year. We have chosen this reporting method in order to more accurately reflect trends and reduce the impact of seasonal variances in the data.

How is criminal court delay measured?

Criminal court data used to measure criminal court delay includes all charges entering the Ontario Courts of Justice, including federal and youth charges, and special courts such as Mental Health Courts, Gladue Courts and Drug Treatment Courts and others.

The number of charges received and disposed of is tracked in several categories:

• Crimes against the person
• Crimes against property
• Administration of justice offences
• Other Criminal Code offences
• Criminal Code traffic offences
• Offences covered by federal statutes.

The average number of appearances and number of days needed to complete each type of offence is also tracked and statistics dating back to 2000 have been made available on this website. The information is broken down regionally and by individual courthouse.

Average appearances are the mean average appearance made on each change in the lifetime of the charge.

A court appearance can be at any stage of the case, at bail, set date, or during the trial itself. Each "day" of trial is a separate appearance.

"Average days to disposition" is measured from the date of the first appearance is entered into the system to the date that the charge is completed.

How do Bench warrants impact the measure of criminal court delay?

Bench warrants are issued when an accused fails to appear in court. Bench warrant days measure the amount of time it takes for a charge to be brought back before the courts following the issuance of a bench warrant. If an accused has fled the jurisdiction, the bench warrant days distort the data, as the delay of proceedings would be caused by the absence of the accused rather than any inherent problems in the court system.

Separating bench warrant days from the data provides a more realistic assessment of the average time it takes to complete a criminal charge. It also gives local leaders more precise indications of where to focus efforts to improve the effectiveness of their court sites.

What progress has been made toward reaching the targets?

The most current statistics show that the average number of appearances needed to complete a criminal charge province-wide has fallen by more than seven per cent since the strategy was launched in June 2008. The increasing trend of criminal court delay has been reversed. For the first time in nearly 20 years this figure has started to go down. Factoring out bench warrant days, the average number of days is also lower than it was when the strategy was launched.

Justice on Target is making progress in addition to the stated targets:

• Every criminal court of the Ontario Court of Justice is now engaged in identifying, implementing or sustaining initiatives to address criminal court delay.
• There have been more than 360,000 fewer court appearances in non-complex, non-violent cases since the strategy began.
• Straightforward, non-complex cases are being resolved sooner so that justice participants can use their resources more effectively to focus on more serious and complex cases and to better assist witnesses, victims and the public. The clearance rate for the most serious charges has increased by 15% since the strategy began.

What will happen when the four-year strategy ends?

Justice on Target is the first initiative that has brought together all justice participants to collaboratively develop a framework that helps reduce the provincial average number of days and appearances required to complete a criminal case.

Moving forward, the framework will provides justice participants with the foundation and tools to continually enhance and improve the justice system.

Justice On Target

• Your Courthouse - map
• JOT Initiatives
• Ideas at Work
• A Brief History of JOT
• Frequently Asked Questions
• JOT Homepage