Sims: Why do Ontario’s court offices still close in the middle of the day?

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Honestly, I thought there would be a simple explanation given for my fairly simple question.

What I wanted to know from the provincial attorney general’s office is this: why do Ontario court offices that help people navigate the often-confusing justice system continue to have pandemic-like hours and shut down daily counter services to the public between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.?

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The doors are closed in the middle of the day. If they were in the lunch business, they would go broke.

After hanging around courthouses for the better part of my oh-so-long career, I’ve grown used to the outdated protocols and administrative chaos that plague the justice system. I’m used to trials that go on too long, not enough courtroom resources, judges shoehorning decisions into packed dockets that are already pages long, multiple unexpected adjournments on routine cases, inadequate teleconferencing links and a host of other unexpected issues that bog down the system.

But this is a bit of a head scratcher. Court offices are really the first stop in the justice system.

I sent an inquiry to the attorney general’s communications people a week ago. They promptly returned my email to say they would get back to me. They sent another email on Thursday to say they were still working on it. I sent another email to both the communications branch and the minister’s office on Monday.

“Confirming we are still working on this and will need more time,” they wrote back. I still don’t have an answer.

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So, a little review of recent history is in order. If there was any bright side that came out of the woeful months of pandemic misery, it was that the justice system was forced kicking and screaming into modern times. Heavens, before the pandemic, contact directories for lawyers and judges still listed their fax numbers with their emails.

Necessity was the mother of invention. To keep cases moving, but bearing in mind the health and safety of the public, the justice system learned on the fly to much success. Teleconferenced courtrooms and online filings became integral and now they’re normal. The monthly Superior Court scheduling court is all done through a Zoom link. No longer are the hallways of the Ontario Court of Justice crammed with people waiting for routine court appearances.

Most days, at least in London and the surrounding area, you can throw a bowling ball through them and hit nothing.

Dockets are available online. Court filings can be made online. Trials, especially with juries, have to be held in person but often there are secure teleconferencing links. In the last couple of years, I’ve probably watched as much court from my desk as I have in courthouses.

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But the hours thing – it’s a puzzle to me. I can just imagine the frustration for someone who has driven into London, St. Thomas, Goderich, Sarnia, Chatham or Woodstock from out of town to file papers or pay a fine or make inquiries about cases, only to find the office is closed five minutes after their arrival and won’t reopen until mid-afternoon.

And, when you call the courthouses, be prepared for at least two minutes of explanations on the recorded greeting before there is a prompt to reach an office.

It’s true that many of the court staff work hybrid models at home and on site, which makes sense post-pandemic. But surely, there should be some effort for a public office to stay open during business hours – for the public.

MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam, the NDP opposition critic for the Ministry of the Attorney General, would like some answers, too. She responded to my inquiries within hours of my call to her office.

“We hear all the complaints when the justice system doesn’t work well and that would include those who are looking for counter services,” said Wong-Tam, who uses the pronouns they/them.

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“Oftentimes it’s about people not being able to navigate the system online or the information is not readily available, or they get to a counter and there’s no one there.”

Like people who don’t speak English, or folks who use mobility devices or are hearing impaired, or simply people with no experience with the justice system and need help. “Those are the complaints we have heard that the system is inaccessible,” Wong-Tam said.

The crux of it is “a chronic underfunding of the court system,” they said. Courthouses are having trouble retaining staff and the government has been slow to hire new workers. Wong-Tam said in Toronto, it’s resulted in adjournments of cases and darkened courtrooms.

“It’s not surprising to me that we don’t have an adequate number of people sitting at the front desk because overall the justice system is underfunded,” they said.

Wong-Tam said they have tried to determine several times at the standing committee on justice policy what the staffing levels should be. “It has to sit directly at the feet of the government. If they’re not able to adequately staff the court system, you’re going to see all sorts of things fall through the cracks.”

Wong-Tam said Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly “harped on about running government like a business. If you ask the average Ontarian are they getting a high level of customer service . . . they will probably say no.”

And there’s no better example than closed public offices in the middle of the work day. To repeat myself, if it was a business, it would have gone broke long ago.

jsims@postmedia.com

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