Ontario Courts Soon to Get Wi-Fi!
You read that right. And – no – you’re not reading an old blog from 10 years ago. It may come as surprise, but the Ontario courts’ arguably archaic infrastructure has not had Wi-Fi … until now. (Or soon).
According to a November 2017 announcement from the provincial Attorney General, Ontario’s courthouses will all be newly-equipped with Wi-Fi by 2019. Additional upgrades will see the current paper-based system for delivering Jury summons will be replaced by one allowing for delivery by e-mail or text, and some divorce-related documents will eligible for on-line filing.
In announcing this long-overdue development, which is being positioned as a measure to improve access-to-justice especially in the Family Law realm, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi said:
“Our system is still very much a bricks and mortar system … The most advancement we’ve seen is we’ve moved from typewriters to desktops or paper filings to faxes. That’s where we’re starting.”
Obviously, these are just baby-steps towards bringing the physical resources into the modern age, it is one of several planned additional steps to modernizing the courts and justice process in the province.
As far as Family Law-related upgrades go specifically: In April 2018, couples going through a joint divorce will be eligible to file their divorce applications on-line. This augments a recent improvement to the document filing system, which saw the province set up a service allowing parents to update their child support agreements online.
For more information on this announcement, see:
Ontario’s new attorney general wants to modernize justice system
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/wifi-ontario-courts-electronic-1.4425300