Newmarket OCJ To Hear Non Urgent Matters
Local Administrative Justice Ghosh has released a new protocol to address the scheduling and hearing of non urgent, out of custody matters, beginning on May 19. 2020. This new protocol is designed to implement the recent direction from Chief Justice Maisonneuve's of May 9, 2020 addressing the hearing of non urgent matters.
As per Justice Ghosh, eligible matters will be those cases with counsel that can be resolved through withdrawals, diversions, peace bonds, stay of proceedings, pleas or sentencings that are expected to consume approximately 30 minutes of court time or less.
Hearings can be scheduled by contacting the Newmarket Crown Attorney's Office. In particular, please contact Sean Doyle (Sean.Doyle@ontario.ca) or David Moull (David.Moull@ontario.ca). The Crown will then arrange with the Assistant Trial Coordinators (Newmarket.OCJ.Criminal.TrialCoordinator@ontario.ca) to have the matter brought forward to an agreeable date. If difficulties arise with respect to scheduling, they will be brought to the attention of the Local Administrative Justice.
Hearings will proceed with only remote attendance by counsel and affected
parties. Given the limitations of audio conferencing and the much higher demands it places on court staff, it will only be possible to schedule a small number of matters each day. As a result, these plea slots will be very valuable and it will be imperative that matters proceed as scheduled.
To ensure the effective operation of the court, any materials to be brought to the presiding justice's attention are to be emailed to the Assistant Trial Co-Ordinators at least two days prior to the hearing with the subject line clearly indicating the client, the time slot assigned and the courtroom.
Matters with prior JPT Positions
A plea can be scheduled with a jurist who has previously judicially pretried a matter. Jurists have agreed to generally support positions taken by other jurists during the public health crisis. If the hearing jurist disagrees with the position of the pretrial jurist, then the plea can be struck and the matter will then be remanded to the pretrial jurist.
Sincerely, Norman Panzica, York Director, Criminal Lawyers Association