Green can program to be expanded 3 / Consistency of the All-Blacks 23
the richmond
Ilich family gives arthritis research a big boost 5
REVIEW
richmondreview.com Friday, august 24, 2012
32 PAGEs
Serious judge shortage at Richmond court Courts are trying to deal with less by Martin van den Hemel Staff Reporter “It’s an impossible day today,” Richmond provincial court Judge Ron Fratkin said Wednesday morning, as he perused a taxing court list burdened with serious cases and too few hours in which to appropriately deal with them. In courtroom 107 stood 11 lawyers, nearly shoulder-toshoulder, jockeying for position in hopes that their matters would be dealt with. But on this day, like so many others since April, lawyers, their clients, victims and witnesses walked away disappointed as there simply aren’t enough judges working in Richmond to deal with the case load. The problem was so dire last May that on one day, not a single judge was available in Richmond. Among Wednesday’s victims of the judge shortage were Patrick Barney Hynes and his lawyer. They came for Hynes’ sentencing hearing for bringing a firearm aboard an airplane. Hynes flew out from Montreal for the sentencing, but since he plans on relocating to the West Coast, the two-week delay he was faced with Wednesday won’t put him out of pocket, but was still an annoyance. “At the end of the day you need more judges,” Hynes’ lawyer Derek Birch said outside the entrance to the courthouse. “And everybody knows that and has known it for years.”
Richmond provincial court has just two-and-a-half judges working weekly, when it could use as many as four. The only full-time judge is Judge Jane McKinnon. Judge Ron Fratkin and Judge Dennis Schmidt share a full-time position, alternating two months at a time. Judge Patrick Chen is the administrative judge, who splits his time between the provincial court on Robson Street in Vancouver, and Richmond provincial court on Firbridge Way. So when Hynes’ case was called, and Birch stepped forward, Fratkin’s words spoke volumes: “I don’t need to tell you what the problem is. It’s not me, it’s the whole deal.” Hynes case would have taken two-and-a-half hours, but Fratkin, shaking his head but adding levity with a smile, said: “You won’t get two-and-a-half minutes.” When it was pointed out that the courthouse could use another judge, Fratkin said: “An additional judge? There is one? I’m forcing an adjournment because we have no court time to deal with this.” And Fratkin said this would remain the case “today or for the foreseeable future.” But Wednesday was simply the calm before the storm. Many serious cases are scheduled to come before the court this fall, and the lack of court time could lead to defence lawyers applying for charge dismissal, on the grounds their clients weren’t given a speedy trial. Criminal defence lawyer Jason Tarnow said what Richmond has been experiencing of late is not a new problem. “It’s been ongoing in other jurisdictions in British Columbia for the last year or so. It’s starting to hit Richmond quite commonly
Martin van den Hemel photo Delays linked to a lack of funding at Richmond provincial court are frustrating judges, lawyers, victims, families, witnesses and the accused, and there’s no end in sight.
now because there’s a shortage of judges.” But Tarnow emphasized that the judge shortage is only one part of an overall lack of justice system funding. Even the Crown is dealing with less. “I had a recent case where the Crown said they would need to adjourn the trial date because they didn’t have enough prosecutors to work on the file,” Tarnow said this week. In Surrey, those looking to set a trial date consider themselves lucky if they get something within 12 months, he said. Once the delays stretch to 15 months, that’s considered the
“danger zone”, Tarnow said, of excessive delays of the type that could lead to charges being dropped. And then there’s the everyday people who are getting hurt. “It has huge ripple effects throughout society,” Tarnow said.“It doesn’t just affect people accused of committing crimes.” Court delays can lead to families being torn apart, as a lack of judges impacts family, youth, and small claims courts as well. NDP Attorney General critic Leonard Krog, MLA for Nanaimo, said there are already examples of criminals walking free because of excessive court delays.
On the civil side of the equation are examples where children are being held by the ministry for months longer than they should be, of parents being unable to access their children, where disputes about child custody and support and small claims matters aren’t resolved for months. And that’s leading to the waste of public funding, as time and efforts of police to investigate and the Crown to prosecute, are resulting in cases tossed out of court. “If you’re a victim of a crime, and you’re told that morning ‘Oops, I’m sorry,’ it is a big deal.”
TONY LING
Tarnow said it seems the current government doesn’t see the justice system as a priority, and doesn’t realize that investing in it now will have long-term benefits for society in the future. According to the Office of the Chief Judge of the B.C. provincial court, there’s nearly a 17 fulltime judge shortage in the province as of Aug. 31, 2012. But the office was unable to comment ahead of The Review’s Thursday afternoon deadline about what’s being done to address the shortage, and the impact the lack of judges is having on other judges left to deal with the backlog.
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