Local court carrying extreme workload of cases: ‘Not enough judges, not enough courtsrooms, not enough staff’

These days, everything is slow at the Brantford Courthouse except for business.

Article content

While there’s a burgeoning caseload of offenses and offenders, the court system is struggling with a lack of judges, courtrooms, Crown attorneys and court office staff.

Article content

During a November sentencing held in Superior Court in Brantford, defense attorney Ian McCuaig pointed out his client had saved time by going to a preliminary hearing.

“I practice all over southern Ontario and (the Ontario) courthouse has the most limited set of resources of any community I’ve ever seen,” McCuaig told the judge.

“There’s not enough judges, not enough courts and not enough staff. Time is precious over there.”

It’s an opinion shared by many of the judges and prosecutors working in the courts, although, when asked for comments, they declined to be interviewed.

Article content

But, during an October sentencing, as cases were being rearranged, Justice Colette Good commented the system was “scheduling 18 hours of court time into six hours.”

In December, an Ontario Court Justice in Brantford stayed extremely serious charges of impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm against a man because it took “far too long” for the case to come to trial.

While the Supreme Court of Canada has said uncomplicated cases must be heard within 18 months, that impaired driving case wasn’t scheduled to be completed until more than 24 months had passed.

Last week, Brantford Police Chief Rob Davis said the complexity of crime is having a major impact on both policing and the local court system.

Article content

“The Brantford court deals with a similar number of cases as Halton region, however our resources are considerably less – approximately one third of their resources,” Davis said in an email.

The chief has been pushing for increases in both court security officers and the police workers in records who assemble the Crown briefs used in court cases.

In response to questions about the number of judges and Crown lawyers working in Brantford and other regions, the Ministry of the Attorney General said such data is “internal and confidential” but generally based on the needs of each jurisdiction.

But others also have compared Brantford’s court system to Halton’s which deals with about the same number of charges each year despite a population about three times higher.

Article content

That area, which is said to have double the number of judges and a higher contingent of Crown attorneys, tend to have far fewer homicide and attempted murder cases.

In 2021, Brantford courts dealt with about 4,800 criminal charges while Halton court, or Milton as it’s referred to, had 4,400.

That year, while Brantford had 24 homicide and seven attempted murder charges brought into the courts, Milton had three and five such cases.

Homicide numbers don’t reflect the number of deaths in a community but the number of people charged and are huge drains on court resources as they require extensive preparation, appearances, pre-trials and various motions.

Similarly, in 2022, Brantford and Halton again had similar numbers as far as total charges in the courts but while Brantford had 17 homicide charges and three attempted murder charges, Milton had four of each.

Article content

In 2023, Brantford’s numbers were reduced somewhat with just four homicide charges in court and 10 attempted murder charges.

All courts are dealing with a pandemic backlog and the Ministry of the Attorney General has hired additional Crown prosecutors, including in Brantford where there are now about 15 assistant Crown attorneys.

But the area has just three consistent judges – Justice Gethin Edward, Justice Robert Gee and Justice Colette Good – after losing Justice Aubrey Hilliard to the Superior Court last June.

Those judges, who also share the workload in Simcoe, are welcoming techniques that help the backlog: guilty pleas, joint sentencing submissions and offenders who decline pre-sentence or Gladue reports, all help to speed up cases.

Article content

Even in complex trials where an offender is pleading not guilty, lawyers sometimes agree on some facts with the Crown as that can cut the time needed to prove evidence in court.

And joint submissions, where an offender usually gets a reduction in a sentence in return for pleading guilty, remain the grease that eases the huge workload along.

A January sexual assault sentencing was a perfect example of the ongoing problem, said Justice Good in court.

“A number of matters were adjourned and one trial matter wasn’t reached, because of the size of the list that was placed before this court.”

Good said if all offenders went to trial, the justice system would collapse.

[email protected]

@EXPSGamble

Article content