Backgrounder

February 11, 2008

Ontario is looking for input from legal associations, lawyers and judges on how to make the civil justice system faster, simpler and less expensive.

Attorney General Chris Bentley is travelling to communities across the province holding focussed discussions following the release of the Civil Justice Reform Project: Summary of Findings and Recommendations, a commissioned report from the Honourable Coulter Osborne.

In addition to these focussed discussions, the government is responding to Mr. Osborne’s summary report by redesigning indoor signs in courthouses to make it easier for people, including people with disabilities, to find courtrooms and services. Preliminary consultations have been held and further consultations will take place with the judiciary, bar and courthouse users. The Barrie courthouse will be the first facility to receive clearer, bilingual signs. Best practices will then be applied as signs are replaced in courthouses across the province.

In November 2007, the government released Mr. Osborne’s summary report containing 81 recommendations touching on 18 areas of procedural and substantive law, including small claims, trial management, appeals, technology, civility, unrepresented litigants, proportionality and making courthouses more user-friendly.

To develop his recommendations, Mr. Osborne carried out province-wide consultations, researched reforms in other jurisdictions, struck three advisory committees and reviewed over 100 submissions.

The summary report is available on the ministry’s website in both French and English at www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca.

Public comment on the Civil Justice Reform Project: Summary of Findings and Recommendations can be sent to attorneygeneral@ontario.ca.

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