In a recent announcement, the Ontario Government has made a truly ground-breaking declaration: It promises to invest a staggering $166 million to modernize the Justice system in the province over the new few years.
The money will be used to completely revamp the cumbersome paper-based system, and replace it with a revolutionary and modern electronic-based model. The cornerstone of this initiative will be a digital platform that facilitates and vastly improves public access to Ontario courts (namely the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice).
It’s all part of what’s called the “Courts Digital Transformation Initiative”, which was first announced in late 2021. That program forms part of a broader provincial government plan called the Justice Accelerated Strategy, which has the core mission to streamline the entire justice system using technology.
With this $166 million boost, litigants, lawyers and judges will see a comprehensive migration of court processes to the digital arena. This means they will all have unprecedented online access to court materials, information, and administrative portals. In particular, the changes will facilitate a broad array of procedural and administrative tasks, including:
- Filing court documents
- Sharing documents between the parties
- Accessing information about specific court cases
- Scheduling hearings
- Participating in remote (virtual) hearings
- Receiving court decisions electronically
- Paying administrative and other fees
In the Family Law realm especially, these improvements are sorely needed. They will go hand-in-hand with the existing use of CaseLines, which has been fully embraced as a great first-step towards paperless information sharing.
Here at our firm, we heartily applaud this government initiative. It dovetails perfectly with some of the goals of the Ad Hoc Family Steering Committee, of which we are a proud part.
The Committee has been a vocal advocate for reforms that improve the public’s experience in the Family Law realm. It has been proactive in bringing to light the critical need to modernize administrative systems, enhance access to justice, streamline processes, and clear out existing case backlogs. To help achieve these goals, the Committee has (among other things) liaised with government and stakeholders in the Family Law sector, and has held Town Hall meetings to promote the cause. It even launched an online petition calling the Ontario government to action, and urging it to take affirmative steps towards these objectives. To date, the petition has garnered nearly 1,500 signatures.
With its access-to-justice mandate, the Ad Hoc Family Steering Committee wholeheartedly supports this latest Ontario government commitment. The promised $166 million investment – while perhaps long overdue – will firmly and finally help bring the Ontario justice system into the modern age.
