Justice Reform Initiatives ~ Early Solutions, Faster Justice

Civil Justice Reform Projects

Report of the Civil Justice Reform Working Group

The Justice Review Task Force established the Civil Justice Reform Working Group in September 2004 and asked it to explore fundamental change of the processes used to resolve Supreme Court, non-family, civil justice matters. In November 2006 the Working Group delivered its report "Effective and Affordable Civil Justice."

The report of the working group provides a vision of access to effective and affordable civil justice through two broad strategies:

• Providing integrated information and services to support those who want to resolve their legal problems on their own before entering the court system, and
  
  
• Providing a streamlined, accessible Supreme Court system where matters that can be settled are settled quickly and affordably and matters that need to go to trial get to trial quickly and affordably.

The three key recommendations of the working group are:

• creation of information centres where people can go to access information and services they need to resolve legal problems on their own,
  
  
• that parties to Supreme Court civil, non-family, actions be required to personally attend a case planning conference before they engage the justice system beyond initiating and responding to a claim, and
  
  
• that the Supreme Court Rules be rewritten to include:
  
  
  • an explicit overriding objective that all proceedings are dealt with justly and pursuant to the principle of proportionality,
    
    
  • a new case initiation and defence process which includes a plan for conducting the case and achieving a resolution,
    
    
  • limits on oral and documentary discovery, and
    
    
  • restrictions on expert evidence.

For more information, visit the Civil Justice Reform Working Group pages on the BC Justice Review Task Force website and read the Working Group's report, "Effective and Affordable Civil Justice."