eNews: Court
“Monday morning, up early as my mind runs through a list of items - flashlight, food, Criminal Code, book tapes, gloves, Child Support Guidelines , satellite phone and robes. An unusual list for anyone except a judge travelling on a northern circuit.”
This week the Provincial Court is launching an initiative to improve the way criminal cases are dealt with in their early stages in the Surrey courthouse. The Court deals with many thousands of new criminal cases in Surrey each year. Managing such a high caseload both fairly and efficiently is a challenge.
John-Paul Boyd is the executive director of the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family, a non-profit organization associated with the University of Calgary. Last year he drafted a statement of the rights and responsibilities of people who participate in Canadian court proceedings without a lawyer and it got a lot of attention.
The executive director of the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family, John-Paul Boyd, has published a statement online setting out the rights and responsibilities of people who are involved in Canadian court proceedings without a lawyer to represent them. It’s worth reading.
The Provincial Court of BC made history last week as the first court in Canada to hold a Twitter Town Hall. Lauded by participants and described as “an obvious success” by Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew, the event even earned the Court the coveted social media status of ‘trending’ in Vancouver.