THE
NBOX
i
Tuesday—five trials were post
poned in the same courthouse.
Witnesses may have flown in,
sometimes translators have
been hired and lawyers' bill
able hours are always ticking
away. With a delay, all those
costs go down a sinkhole.
"When you start tallying up,"
Syer says, "even at a very
conservative estimate, you're
talking about a minimum
$100,000 worth of preparation
that got wasted last Monday,
just in one courthouse. Multi
ply that by all the weeks it hap
pens and we are talking about
waste in the millions. We've
reached a crisis point."
The pandemic didn't
help. "When
COVID hit they
adjourned every trial for three
months," James says. "We've
never really caught up."
Meanwhile, the Judicial
Advisory Committee, the body
that evaluates judicial
applicants, went dark for
about five months last year
after all the members' terms
expired. "That's definitely a
factor," says Scott Morishita,
president of the Canadian Bar
Association of BC.
Criminal cases, at least, are
being heard fairly promptly.
"There was a recent Supreme
Court of Canada case called R
v. Jordan," James says. "The
court said if you don't try
someone within 18 months,
charges are automatically
stayed. That means no crimi
nal trials get bumped. And that
means they take judges away
from civil trials."
On a sunny Tuesday in
Gastown, the happiest creature
in Ashley Syer's legal office is
Sadie. A threeyearold golden
retriever, Sadie is pleased that
Syer is around to offer cuddles
and to distribute droolcovered
toys. Syer herself is not so
thrilled. She's supposed to be
in court. In a disturbingly com
mon situation for Vancouver
area lawyers, her trial has been
bumped. No judge is available.
These days, trial dates in
B.C. are more precious than a
downtown Vancouver parking
space. Vacancies on the B.C.
Supreme Court (in early March
there were 12) mean many
lawyers and their frustrated
civil clients cannot have their
scheduled day. "On average,
25 percent of all civil trials in
Vancouver are bumped," says
Amanda James of Burnaby
based Apna Law
LLP. "And
they don't go to the top of the
list, because the next 12 to 18
months are already booked
with other trials. There's
nowhere to put them back
in. There's no guarantee for
next time—I have had a case
bumped three times."
Syer wasn't the only one
who got bumped on that
HOLDING COURT
B.C. is facing a serious judge shortage, causing
some civil trials to be delayed for years
by Steve Burgess
L A W
"
Court is
a lot like
triage right
now. It's like
going to the
surgery ward
and saying
'Whose leg
looks worse?
Who's going
to bleed
out first?'
It shouldn't
be how we
administer
justice in this
province."
DOG DAYS
When B.C. Supreme
Court vacancies cause
delays, mediator Ashley
Syer gets to hang out
with Sadie instead
9
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
M AY
2 0 24 To p : Ky r a n i K a n a v a r o s ; illu s t r a t i o n : J a n ik S ö ll n e r/ N o u n P r oj e c t