Canadian Lawyer

10 M a r c h 2 0 1 4 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m increased in both civil and criminal matters, including the power to commit the "insane" and place children under 16 in homes and institutions, an attribute that maybe reveals the social roots of the current court. In 1885, the function became irre- vocable during good conduct, which represented a step in the right direction of judicial independence. In 1952, the Recorder's Court became the Municipal Court of Montreal. Today, it has civil and criminal jurisdiction in summary proceedings under Part XXVII of the Criminal Code. Its judges preside over more than 70,000 cases a year includ- ing some 17,000 criminal cases. It has progressively developed its social pro- grams over the last 30 years and has become a laboratory of social justice. (Case in point: five years ago, without warning, the government of Quebec dropped a mental health court project in the court's lap with a sticky note: "Please develop this. Thanks." It is now the court's biggest social program.) So its social justice approach started well before Minc took the helm four years ago (he was appointed to the court in 1993), but he has been active in expanding and promoting it. Under his stewardship, for example, courtrooms have been specifically allocated to some of the social programs; internal commit- tees composed of a wide array of profes- sionals, including Crown and defence lawyers as well as social workers, have been created to evaluate the impact of each program. Minc has been active in the recruitment of 10 new judges, add- ing to a roster that now counts 32, all permanent staff. Is this system costly? Minc points to the fact the cost of detention is $160,000 a year per detainee and that most of the programs are self-financed or financed within the budget already allocated to the court's general affairs. Of course, this approach will not work for every case. First, the defendant has to agree to participate and to com- plete the program successfully. Second, he or she has to qualify for the program according to an assessment made by qualified professionals. The programs themselves are very demanding. The intensity of the commitment is such that it will discourage anyone to sign up just to avoid a prison sentence. The victims are also part of the pro- cess: the domestic violence program, for example, shifts the responsibility of initiating the proceedings against the defendant from the victim to the Crown, who will do so by authorizing the com- plaint, thus avoiding reprisal by the aggressor and the total destruction of the relationship. Also, Minc says an office reserved for a representative of the Crime Victims Assistance Centre would be created in the near future. Finally, the latest program to be implemented is for seniors who are victims of crime, for they are generally reluctant to go to court especially when the abuser is a relative. In a few words, what defines the court is its participatory character — all parties and the authorities work togeth- er toward finding a solution to a con- flict. It has earned the court the status of "problem-solving court," a current trend in the American legal system that pro- motes a hands-on approach to reducing recidivism. — PAsCAL eLIe pascalelie636@gmail.com RegioNAl wRAp-up Big four eatiNg your legal luNch D eloitte's acquisition of document review company ATD Legal Ser- vices PC in January is only the latest move in a trend that shows professional services firms are "making serious noise" about tap- ping into the legal industry, an Ottawa-based industry analyst says. Deloitte says it's advancing its Canadian financial forensics work through the acquisition of ATD Legal Services. The move means large- scale document review and analysis have become part of Deloitte's services and clients won't need to go to third parties for assistance in that area, says Peter Dent, who leads Deloitte's forensic services practice in Canada. "They [ATD] were service providers to law firms just like we are as part of our discovery practice, so it's basically adding a next stage or step we did not currently have in our practice," says Dent. "We're basically internal- izing this process. So for the purpose of our clients, they only have to go to one vendor." This isn't the first time Deloitte and other professional services firms have brought lawyers and other legal offerings into their business model. According to Jordan Furlong, a principal at consulting firm Edge Interna- tional, the legal industry has a lot to learn from the accounting firms as they broaden their services to respond to client needs. In September 2013, Deloitte LLP announced its alliance with immi- gration law firm Shouli & Partners LLP. The joint venture would enable Deloitte LLP to provide business immigration services to its clients, the firm said. The year before, KPMG LLP announced Greenberg Turner, an immigration firm, had joined KPMG Law LLP. Elio Luongo, KPMG's Canadian managing partner for tax, also used the phrase "one-stop shop" to describe what the accounting firm's practice had become with the merger. Meanwhile, Ernst & Young has a long-standing immigration 100 years of MoNtreal MuNicipal court continued from page 7

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