A Justice on Target initiative, An Appearance Standard recognizes that criminal cases should not be routinely adjourned without anything having been accomplished.

People working out of the criminal courts in Sudbury's Ontario Court of Justice are used to aiming for deadlines.

Under a protocol, written by Regional Senior Justice Richard Humphrey in 2009, someone charged with a crime is expected to retain counsel within two weeks of their first court appearance. Once Defence Counsel is retained, the next court date will be six weeks later for adults and three weeks for youth. In the time between these two appearances, Counsel is expected to find out how the client wants to proceed and hold a resolution meeting with the Crown Attorney.

Director of Crown Operations, North Region, John Luczak, admits it can be a challenge for everyone to get it accomplished in the six-week window. But, he adds, "We're resolving cases earlier as a result of the protocol." He also says he's glad other courts have benefited from the Sudbury experience and he is pleased to see what other sites have done as part of the JOT process.

When Sudbury was officially engaged as a JOT Action Site, local leaders built on the existing protocol, and identified other local initiatives to address criminal court delay at the local level.

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