Justice delayed, justice denied: N.L. to streamline justice system

Newfoundland and Labrador's justice minister outlined a plan Wednesday to overhaul the province's court system to make it more efficient.

Justice Minister Jerome Kennedy said the government would support a task force report from February that called for cutting the time between a person's arrest and a judgment.

The authors of the Report on the Task Force on Criminal Justice Efficiencies — a group of lawyers and a chief judge — found some trials were taking a year to complete when they could have wrapped up in four months.

Kennedy said the next provincial budget will include more money to streamline the justice system, including more paralegals in the Crown attorney's office; $400,000 for legal aid so that defendants in high-profile cases, such as murder cases, can choose their own lawyer; and a better scheduling system for courtrooms.

"It's somewhat startling to me that by making some improvements in the system, injecting limited resources, we can reduce, if everything works properly, trial times from an average — and I'm going to stress that word average — of 10 to 12 months to three to four months," he said.

Kennedy also said he would create a pool of retired judges who can step in when the system is getting swamped.

Crown attorney Philip LeFeuvre said his office is looking forward to the changes since the longer the wait to see a judge, the harder it is for everyone.

"Importantly from our standpoint, witnesses' memories fade with time and it's stressful to have these things hanging over you," he said.