Notice to the Profession, Litigants, Accused, Media and Members of the Public (June 25, 2020)
This update includes information on reopening the courts, including materials from the virtual town hall meeting on June 19, 2020, remote hearings best practices, and FOLA's submission to OCJ Chief Justice Lise Maisonneuve regarding the expansion of services on Family and Criminal matters. View the weekly report here or on FOLA's website here.
Update on Court Reopening - Newmarket Courthouse Walk Thru June 16/20
I attended the Newmarket session/walk thru on June 16, 2020 as part of a small group including our LAJ Ghosh and SCJ Fuerst.
There have been not any significant physical changes as of yet. They intend to install significant amounts of plexiglass particularly in the courtrooms, signage and floor makings throughout the building, and addressing elevator and washroom use. These items are on order but have yet to arrive and be installed*
There was significant discussions of a manner of reopening, with issues to be addressed and finalized shortly. In addition we all had access to the presentation on Friday which may impact or temper the suggestions. In any event below are some of the suggestions and discussions from the walk through (again, though no concrete positions taken as of yet):
1. Permitting use of prisoners box for out of custody accused, or multiple accused to sit in as there is already pre-existing plexiglass. As there is no jury is present and this being simply a covid-19 issue, there would no concern for impact on the trier of fact by presence in the box.
2. Discussion still ongoing as to whether and who would wear masks, and whether same will be mandatory.
3. For jury trials, trying to configure jury boxes or jury seating to comply with adequate social distancing.
4. Jurists, court staff and or some of them may be offsite.
5. No direction yet whether jurists will have the option if wearing a mask or whether such will be mandatory.
6. Removal of lecterns from courtrooms so counsel can likely address court while seated and typing.
7. Vulnerable witnesses - conference room adjacent to courtroom 204 may be able to accommodate face to face examination of witnesses given room dimensions but will depend on judicial and other directions.
* (Installation of the plexiglass barriers took place on the 18th and the law library staff desks were included as part of this project) - Betty
Crown Assignments Week of June 22, 2020
Monday June 22
202P – Rob De Chellis Robert.DeChellis@ontario.ca
200 Court (judge) – Tony Tony.VandenEnde@ontario.ca
201 Court (judge) – Michael Demczur Michael.Demczur@ontario.ca
103 Bails – Samantha Samantha.Peterson2@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Jeff Jeffrey.Costain1@ontario.ca
Bail Vettors – Sham Shambavi.Kumaresan@ontario.ca
Elissa Elissa.Kulpers@ontario.ca
Remote Duty Crown – Lesley Lesley.Pasquino@ontario.ca
Tuesday June 23
202P – Neil Singh Anil.Singh2@ontario.ca
201 Court (judge) – Thompson Thompson.Hamilton@ontario.ca
103 Bails - Martin Martin.Dionne@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Greg Greg.J.Elder@ontario.ca
Bail Vettors – Gemma Gemma.Sang@ontario.ca
Remote Duty Crown – Amy Amy.Barkin@ontario.ca
Wednesday June 24
202P - Brad Bradley.Juriansz@ontario.ca
201 Court (judge) – Erin Erin.Rizok2@ontario.ca
103 Bails – Michelle Michelle.Rumble@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Jacob Jacob.Wilson@ontario.ca
Kevin Kevin.Stewart@ontario.ca
Thursday June 25
202P – Ivana Ivana.Denisov@ontario.ca
200 Court (judge) – Michael Demczur Michael.Demczur@ontario.ca
201 Court (judge) – Samantha Samantha.Peterson2@ontario.ca
103 Bails - Kevin Kevin.Stewart@ontario.ca
Friday June 26
202P - Greg Greg.J.Elder@ontario.ca
201 Court (judge) – Philip Philip.Hsiung@ontario.ca
103 Bails – Gemma Gemma.Sang@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Thompson Thompson.Hamilton@ontario.ca
Courtroom Call In Information:
Tel. 416-212-8012 866-633-0848
100 Intake/Other matters #4942812
103 Bail #4674204
104 Bail #6532049
200 Remand/Plea #5467574
201 Remand/Plea #9851321
Sincerely,
Norman Panzica, York Director, Criminal Lawyers Association
COVID-19: SCHEDULING OF FAMILY MATTERS IN THE ONTARIO COURT OF JUSTICE
*This Notice supersedes previously announced notices. Effective Date: June 17, 2020
Also please note Newmarket has UFC.
Notice to the Profession and the Public re: Resumption of Criminal Trials and Preliminary Hearings in the Ontario Court of Justice as of July 6, 2020 (Published June 17, 2020)
Please be advised that the Ministry of the Attorney General is hosting a Courthouse Recovery information session with Dr. Michelle Murti, from Public Health Ontario, and Ron Kelusky, Ontario’s Chief Prevention Officer, on Friday June 19, 2020 at 10 a.m.
You and members of your associations are welcome to join this session using the following link: Friday, June 19th from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
FOLA understands and appreciates that you have an interest in the health and safety measures being implemented at courthouses. In fact, many of you have reached out to us to see if you or a representative of your local law association can attend some of your local planned inspections. Unfortunately, FOLA has been told that, due to capacity issues, they are unable to include additional representatives at this time.
That being said, once completed, local assessments will be made widely available and FOLA will be providing you with a final copy of their report.
If you have any questions, please contact: Samantha Poisson at Samantha.Poisson@ontario.ca
Update On Court Reopening
As I indicated previously, no trials or preliminary hearings will be conducted until July 6, 2020 at the earliest. We are anticipating an updated pronouncement shortly to clarify the anticipated courthouse status with respect to addressing trials and preliminary hearings post July 6, 2020.
Tomorrow I, along with other stakeholder representatives, will be attending the Newmarket Courthouse for an in person update and view of physical changes and adjustments with respect to courthouse operations going forward. As I advised last week, similar steps were taken at the Brampton Courthouse last week.
Crown Assignments Week of June 15, 2020
Monday June 15
202P – Brad Bradley.Juriansz@ontario.ca
103 Bails - Thompson Thompson.Hamilton@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Ivana Ivana.Denisov@ontario.ca
Remote Duty Crown – Rob Scott Robert.Scott@ontario.ca
Tuesday June 16
202P – Rob de Chellis Robert.DeChellis@ontario.ca
200 Court (judge) – Melissa Melissa.Henry@ontario.ca
103 Bails - Neil Anil.Singh2@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Tony Tony.VandenEnde@ontario.ca
Wednesday June 17
200 Court (judge) – Greg Greg.J.Elder@ontario.ca
201 Court (judge) – Michelle Michelle.Rumble@ontario.ca
103 Bails – Jeff Jeffrey.Costain1@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Brian Brian.McCallion@ontario.ca
Bail Vettors – Kevin Kevin.Stewart@ontario.ca
Sham Shambavi.Kumaresan@ontario.ca
Thursday June 18
103 Bails - Tony Tony.VandenEnde@ontario.ca
Remote Duty Crown – LesleyLesley.Pasquino@ontario.ca
Friday June 19
202P - Samantha Samantha.Peterson2@ontario.ca
200 Court (judge) – Jacob Jacob.Wilson@ontario.ca
103 Bails – Tony Tony.VandenEnde@ontario.ca
104 Bails – Melissa Melissa.Henry@ontario.ca
Sincerely, Norman Panzica, York Director, Criminal Lawyers Association
In an effort to keep real estate lawyers updated with the ever-changing situation, we have further information to be shared with the real estate lawyers in your association.
Effective June 15 - to support COVID-19 physical distancing protocols, our Personal Mortgage and Homeline Plan Payout team is introducing a digital alternative to a cheque or draft.
Lawyers can now contact the Payout Statement Phone Team (1-800-974-1163) to send a wire payment instead of mailing/dropping-off a cheque or draft
Lawyer Process:
The Payout Statement Phone team will provide lawyers with a password protected e-mail using Secure Webmail with:
The lawyer will need to reply via secured e-mail with the following documents:
We had a very positive meeting with the Ministry of Attorney General and Ministry of Consumer and Government Services staff on June 10, 2020 regarding virtual commissioning and virtual notarization. A copy of our written submissions are available on the FOLA website here.
If and when we receive further information of interest to the real estate bar, we will pass it along.
Stay up to date with FOLA’s real estate information at https://fola.ca/real-estate-law.
Merredith MacLennan and Eldon Horner
FOLA Real Estate Co-Chairs
Government of Canada news release
From the Federation of Ontario Law Associations:
Below is an email from FOLA’s Board Chair, William Woodward. Please share this with your members.
Late Friday evening, FOLA received an very time sensitive request from Attorney General Doug Downey requesting our input and perspective on a potential amendment to the Courts of Justice Act regarding the availability of civil juries. (See letter attached.)
You may recall that the AG recently made changes to remove the availability of jury trials in simplified procedure cases started under Rule 76 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. However, Ontario is one of the last Canadian jurisdictions to allow civil jury trials for most other civil matters, as of right.
Due mostly to the coronavirus pandemic, the demands on the system will continue to evolve quickly as we begin to see the province reopening in stages. To address these changes, the AG and the government will continue to act on the guidance of public health experts, and have expressed a commitment to continue to work together to develop new ways of conducting matters.
Currently, section 108 of the Courts of Justice Act permits a jury of six persons to assess damages and/or decide issues of fact in civil actions, except where prohibited by statute. Certain other statutes provide a judge with authority to direct that an action be brought, or an issue be tried, with a jury in a trial under the act, or set out the responsibilities of the jury where a jury trial is held under the act. (See attached Appendix A to this letter for further details.)
Specifically, the AG is considering an amendment to the Courts of Justice Act to eliminate some or all civil jury trials and would like your thoughts on the following related questions:
1. Should civil juries be eliminated altogether? or
2. If civil jury trials were to be eliminated, are there certain action types that should be exempt? Please specify any action types that in your view should continue to have jury trials available, and the reasons for your view.
The AG has requested our submission by Monday, June 15th. As such, if you wish to contribute your comments for our consideration, please send us your comments NO LATER THAN THURSDAY AT 5:00pm. Please direct your comments to Katie Robinette at katie.robinette@fola.ca.
If your Association would like to submit your own comments, please prepare a written submission and direct it to Ms. Amanda Iarusso, Director of Policy and Legal Affairs, by email at amanda.iarusso@ontario.ca no later than Monday, June 15, 2020.
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