Judges’ schedules | Quebec and the chief justice find a “compromise”

The Minister of Justice of Quebec, Simon Jolin-Barrette, and the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, are burying the hatchet over the reform of the judges’ schedule. Quebec is creating 14 new judicial positions, while the Court of Quebec is committed to sitting longer and respecting certain targets.

A compromise “. This word appears four times in the first paragraph of the agreement made public Friday afternoon. This agreement, in effect until December 2025, is the result of four months of negotiations led by former judge Jacques Chamberland, appointed facilitator by the parties last January. Essentially, both sides cut the pear in half to break the deadlock.

It must be said that for months, the positions of the Legault government and the Court of Quebec were poles apart in this heated and very public conflict between the Minister of Justice and Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau. Minister Jolin-Barrette even fought before the Court of Appeal to overturn the decision of the Chief Justice.

The Minister feared that the Rondeau reform would lead to an “avalanche” of thousands of halts to the judicial process due to unreasonable delays. Many players in the judicial system had also sounded the alarm in recent months. Even the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) was preparing to prioritize certain files to the detriment of others.

“We have a shared responsibility to provide citizens with accessible, rapid and humane justice services. We would also like to thank Mr. Chamberland for his work on the file,” added the Minister.

At the heart of the conflict: the “reorganization” of judges’ work schedules introduced by the Court of Quebec, without consulting the government. Concretely, since September 2022, the judges of the criminal and penal division hear fewer cases in the courtroom to have more time to deliberate. The judges sit every other day (ratio 1/1), whereas they previously sat for two days and deliberated on the third day (ratio 2/1).

To compensate for the loss of thousands of hearing days per year, Chief Judge Lucie Rondeau demanded the addition of 41 judges, which Quebec firmly refused. But within the framework of this “compromise”, Quebec throws ballast and undertakes to appoint this year 14 new judges to the criminal and penal division.

In return, the judges of the criminal and penal chamber will have to sit 17 days more per judicial year. The magistrates sat 104 days since September 2022, whereas they were previously on the bench 139 days per year. From now on, they will sit 121 days a year. The new ratio of sitting days is therefore between 1/1 and 2/1.

New targets

To end the conflict, the Court of Quebec made other concessions. In fact, the judiciary undertakes to achieve three new targets at the end of the agreement, including that of significantly reducing the median time for closing cases. At the moment, a criminal case stretches for about 300 days, which is 50% more than in 2018-2019. Under the agreement, this period must be increased to 212 days.

The judiciary and the Ministry of Justice also want to increase the “closure rate” of files from 0.91 to 1.10. In practice, this means that at the end of the agreement, there will have to be more criminal files that will end than files that will be opened.

Last target: 87.7% of criminal cases will have to end, in the long term, within the ceilings of 18 or 30 months set up by the Supreme Court in the Jordan judgment on reasonable delays. The ratio is currently stagnating at 79.4%, which suggests many stays of proceedings. That said, a criminal case can go past the prescribed time without falling through.

A quarterly follow-up will be carried out by Québec and the Court of Québec to assess the impact of the measures and the progress of the targets. In the meantime, Quebec intends to ensure that reliable statistics are available on many key indicators. Thus, any “significant” deviation from the objectives will be highlighted.

The Bar and the DPCP satisfied

The Barreau du Québec is “delighted” with the conclusion of this agreement. “We welcome the commitment of the parties to greater efficiency of justice. More specifically, the adoption of concrete and measurable performance indicators concerning judicial delays represents a historic measure, which will certainly benefit all Quebec citizens,” underlined the Bâtonnière du Québec, Ms.^e Catherine Claveau, in an email to The Press.

The same goes for the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, for whom the agreement “will promote compliance with the legal deadlines prescribed by the Supreme Court in the Jordan judgment, which is likely to reassure victims who hope for a resolution on their record.” “The DPCP ensures its collaboration in the implementation of lasting solutions to the problem of judicial delays for the benefit of victims, defendants and society as a whole,” said spokesperson Ms.^e Audrey Roy-Cloutier, in an email to The Press.

We will have to see in the coming months the impact of this agreement on the ground. This spring, at the Montreal courthouse, the deadlines for setting a trial of a few days were still around 14 months, or even more, at the Court of Quebec. Such delays risk leading to stays of proceedings, since the Jordan decision puts an 18-month ceiling on most cases.