B.C. has announced a wide-ranging review of its justice system, aimed at making it more efficient.
But local lawyers doubt the system can be fixed without more money.
"Obviously any system will have room for improvement. I'm not sure it can be solved without putting more resources into it," said Dan Sudeyko, a local defence lawyer who also administers Legal Aid for the North Shore. "They're clearly short judges and court time," he said.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark launched the review, appointing lawyer Geoffrey Cowper, QC, to oversee the process.
B.C. spends more than $1 billion on police and the court system annually, according to the government. Crime has also declined at a faster rate here than in any other province, dropping 45 per cent since its all-time high in 1991. "And yet the cost and the amount of time people are waiting for trial is continuing to increase," said Clark at a press conference Wednesday. "It just doesn't add up."
A government "green paper" released last week pointed to other problems in the justice system. Among them are a growing jail population - mostly of people waiting for their trials - increasing charges for violations of court orders, deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, whose problems often land them in court, and an increased number of court appearances purely for administrative purposes.
Defence lawyer Jay Straith said it's fashionable for the government to blame lawyers and judges for problems in the court system, but without more money, its unlikely problems can be solved.
Courts are so overbooked, prosecutors often have to make last-minute "triage" decisions on which cases will go ahead, he said.
Sudeyko also pointed to very big trials - such as the UN gang trials - that use up vast amounts of court resources.
The B.C. Rail trial is another one that used up massive resources, he said. "That's a big long case that's worth looking at."
Straith added many changes have come about as a result of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Some of that has been time-consuming. Many cases now involve lengthy charter arguments on admissibility of evidence before the trial even gets started.
In response to the government's announcement, the chief justices of the province issued a statement saying they welcome the opportunity to discuss "the issues and challenges facing the justice system." But they added the review must also respect the "independence of the judiciary."
In the year ending in July 2011, North Vancouver provincial court handled 3,322 new cases and concluded 3,449 cases - a little more than three per cent of total provincial court case load, according to B.C. government statistics.
Court cases took a median time of 70 days to conclude, compared to 78 days provincially. It took an average of five court appearances to conclude a case, compared to almost six provincially.
Cowper will report back to the province in July, and a white paper on the justice system is expected in the fall.
Last week the province also announced the appointment of nine new provincial judges, including Patricia Bond, a partner in North Shore Law.
