“Our archaic, inefficient and frequently unfair legal system is in urgent need of drastic revisions and practical modernizations,” C.F. Bentley recently wrote in this paper’s letters to the editor section.
“There is long-standing indisputable confirmation of how utterly bad our Canadian legal systems are. In the last 15 years: two chief justices of the Supreme Court of Canada and one chief justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. independently … have pleaded loudly for reform and relief,” he continued.
First, in defence of the courts, we need a justice system independent of government officials and leaders. Otherwise, we have a dictatorship where one’s rights and freedoms are dependent on corruption, relationship to people in power and the backing of armed followers. Internationally, in 2000, the Institute for Management Development ranked our justice system as the second best in the world, surpassed only by Denmark.
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Nevertheless, I agree that there are problems with Canada’s system. It is complex, costly and slow in dealing with problems.
Here are some thoughts I have. First, we need to encourage the “plain language” movement in law. The thrust of this movement is to put our laws and legal documents in modern easy-to-understand language.
As citizens there are things we can do to encourage this movement. Ask your legislator to explain in plain language the provisions of recent laws that have been passed in the legislature or Parliament. When your lawyer, banker, insurance broker or government official presents you with a document to sign, take the time to read it and ask that it be explained to you. If we all did this I suspect that we indeed would see the law written in a simpler way.
Our legal system is also costly to access. With typical legal fees in the $100-$250 per hour range depending on location and experience of the lawyer, coupled with court fees, even a small dispute going to court can be expensive.
Thus a simple case going before the Court of Queen’s Bench is likely to cost in excess of $10,000. Legal and court fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars are common in complex cases.
We need to encourage alternatives to litigation including mediation and collaborative law. The essence of collaborative law is the parties agreeing to resolve their dispute without going to court. Nor does every legal matter need to be handled by a lawyer. A trained paralegal could handle many less complex matters.
So too, small claims limits could be increased so more citizens can handle their own cases. It’s $25,000 in Alberta. In most other provinces it is less than $10,000.
Finally, as citizens we have a responsibility. We need to accept that not every problem needs to be solved by the law. Too often we ask that there should be a law against some activity or sue over fairly minor wrongs.
As I was writing this column I read an editorial in the Globe and Mail calling for legislation against spam or unsolicited e-mail. Around the same time I also listened to a radio talk show on the subject of whether there should be laws against ticket scalping.
If we have such laws who will enforce them? Will we need more police or will police resources be diverted from other law enforcement? Will the anti-spam or anti-scalping laws mean more court cases and if so, does this mean more courthouses, judges and court staff? How will we pay for these? Most importantly, will an anti-spam or anti-scalping law actually make any difference?
Don Purich is a former practising lawyer who is now involved in publishing, teaching and writing about legal issues. His columns are intended as general advice only. Individuals are encouraged to seek other opinions and/or personal counsel when dealing with legal matters.
