Lawyers say the group’s months-long timeline for tackling systemic court issues will hurt litigants
Amid confusion over the Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador’s abrupt decision to suspend matters at courts that largely serve self-represented litigants, lawyers worry that a new working group launched by the province’s justice minister will fail to resolve the immediate access to justice issues introduced by the court disruptions.
Announced on Dec. 4 by Newfoundland and Labrador’s Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, the working group will meet before the holidays and in the early new year to determine why the provincial court system is suffering from staff shortages and other systemic pressures. The working group is slated to make recommendations on how to address those issues by mid-February.
The ministry’s announcement came roughly a week after the Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador abruptly adjourned civil, traffic, and Contraventions Act matters in the Provincial Court until further notice. Civil matters in the Provincial Court involve small claims, or cases in which less than $25,000 is at stake. Matters that involve more than $25,000 go to the province’s Supreme Court, which is currently operating as usual.
The Provincial Court also curtailed the availability of circuit courts, which do not operate in a fixed courtroom but regularly travel to different regions to hear matters. These courts are still operating, but in fewer regions than they previously did, which requires more travel for many litigants.
Joe Thorne, advocacy chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Newfoundland and Labrador branch, says that while he is encouraged by the ministry moving quickly to strike a working group, “the concern from the members of the CBA and on behalf of the public is that the problem that we’re dealing with now seems to require a more kind of urgent solution.
“Working groups and committees are excellent for working on long-term structural issues, which the Provincial Court does have,” Thorne says. He adds, “But in order to get these courtrooms reopened and these matters heard again, I think we need a shorter-term solution to address the shortfalls in the staffing and the budget that seem to have been identified.”
Devin Drover, Atlantic director and general counsel of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, told Canadian Lawyer that for many Newfoundland and Labrador residents, the Provincial Court “is the only realistic path to justice for them in resolving disputes with neighbours or within their community.”
He adds that he hoped the courts and the province could provide a solution before the working group’s mid-February deadline.
According to both Drover and Thorne, the Provincial Court did not provide the public with advance notice that it would be curtailing its operations. The court’s announcement also lacked an explanation for why the disruptions were happening, though the subsequent announcement of the working group’s launch alluded to staff shortages, leaving both lawyers and litigants confused and uncertain about the future.
“It was very surprising, to say the least,” Drover says. “I had people reach out to me, trying to understand what that means.
“You have people who sometimes sue airlines for small amounts of money, for example. Or you have people who are trying to recover property that they lent,” he says. “With these cases adjourned indefinitely, families, small businesses, self-represented litigants – they’re now stuck in limbo with no clear timeline and no clear answers from the government or the court.”
While litigants with small claims can technically bring their matters over to the province’s Supreme Court, doing so can be both financially and practically prohibitive. Thorne says compared to the Provincial Court, the Supreme Court involves more complex rules and procedural steps, which can be challenging to navigate for litigants who can’t afford a lawyer.
“You’ve got to produce your documents, you’ve got to do discovery, you’ve got to attend motions, you’ve got to go to a pre-trial, you’ve got to go to a settlement conference – all those things [are] expensive and time consuming,” he says. “Whereas the small claims court is meant to be much more user-friendly for people without a lawyer.”
Provincial Court workers have also criticized the court disruptions and the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety’s response. After the latter announced the launch of the working group last week, the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees, or NAPE, a union representing some of the workers at the court, claimed it had never received notice about the court disruptions.
“Recruitment and retention problems in the court system are not new; frontline workers have been raising the alarm for years,” the union said in a statement last week. “Yet today the Minister announced a ‘working group’ with zero acknowledgment of labour, and no place for the very workers who keep the court system functioning every single day to have a say. You can’t fix a problem by shutting out the very people it impacts.”
The working group is slated to include the Provincial Court’s chief judge, another Provincial Court judge, two members of the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, Deputy Minister of Justice and Public Safety Gerrie Smith, and other senior officials in the ministry.
Spokespeople for the ministry and the Provincial Court did not immediately respond to a list of questions by Canadian Lawyer about the court disruptions and the working group on Monday.
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Joe Thorne is currently the advocacy chair of the Canadian Bar Association's Newfoundland and Labrador branch, not the president. Thorne previously served as president of the bar association from 2022-2023.
