Since 2015, the City of Montreal has had to pay $ 81 million to settle legal actions brought against it. But in general, the City wins more cases before the courts than it loses, argued Thursday the Director of Legal Affairs of the City of Montreal, Me Francis F. Guay, during the presentation of its budget. service before the Finance Commission.
The City’s Legal Affairs Department took stock of the 2,938 court cases that were closed between January 1, 2015 and November 17, 2021. The amounts claimed from the City for all of these files totaled more than $ 693 million. Class actions brought against the City were, however, excluded from these statistics.
In seven years, the City of Montreal was successful in 590 cases in court, while 109 other cases ended with an unfavorable judgment in its regard, which resulted in the payment of $ 5.3 million. from the City.
More cases, 1448, were settled through out-of-court settlements and led to the payment of a sum of 76 million by the City. Overall, the City’s lawyers had to defend it in court in 23.8% of disputes. “In other words, we settle more often than plead”, summarized Me Guay during a virtual meeting of the Finance Committee.
This is the first time that the Legal Affairs Department has done such a count. “I am not trying to tell you that everything is perfect or that the City’s position has always been retained,” Me Guay told the elected members of the Finance Committee. “But before hiring our client, […] you have to see if going to court and getting a judgment is the best way to serve the client. “
Time limits in municipal court
The delays in the processing of traffic and parking infringement cases at the Municipal Court remain high, also recognized the chief lawyer of the City. The pandemic forced the judiciary to be put on hiatus in the spring of 2020, which boosted case processing times which, on average, exceeded the 18-month mark. In the first half of 2021, the deadlines reached 674 days, says the report filed by the Legal Affairs Department. “We had to give double and triple bites to be able to try to reduce [ces délais] », Explained Me Guay, who said he was aware of the inconvenience of these delays for citizens.
However, work at the Municipal Court resumed its cruising speed in the summer of 2021 and four additional rooms were added, he said. Data for the second half of 2021 is not yet available, however. “The next statistics – which I can’t wait to see – will really show that this threshold of 674 [jours] will be lowered, ”said Me Guay.
The City’s chief lawyer said he hoped that the cases could be heard in less than 12 months at the Municipal Court. The City of Montreal also hopes that the government of Quebec will agree that cases relating to traffic offenses can be managed administratively so as to relieve the Court’s congestion.
Recall that in 2018, the judge of the Municipal Court Line Charest had decreed a stay of proceedings for a municipal offense case due to unreasonable delays, which had resulted in the suspension of 34,577 other cases and “theoretical” losses. of $ 6.8 million for the City, according to Me Guay.