Canadian Lawyer

8 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m \ AT L A N T I C \ C E N T R A L \ P R A I R I E S \ W E S T REGIONAL WRAP-UP C E N T R A L Quebec justice minister wants summer trials W hen she was a young lawyer in private practice in the 1990s in the Quebec town of Maniwaki, a two-hour drive north of Ottawa, Stéphanie Vallée always knew when the fall moose hunt- ing season was approaching. "I'd start getting calls from fellow lawyers, asking for delays in court cases," recalls Vallée. The same thing happened, she added, before the Christmas holidays, spring break, the opening of the trout fishing season and the summer vacation period. "We were all for delays to suit our per- sonal needs and our clients' needs as well," she says. "It was part of the culture." As Quebec's justice minister, Vallée is now working to change all that. In early October, she unveiled a 22-point action plan that aims to speed up both criminal and civil proceedings in la belle province. Devised over the past year with input from several groups at the heart of the provincial justice system, including the director of criminal and penal prosecu- tions (the Quebec equivalent of the Crown Attorney Office), the Barreau du Québec, the provincial association of defence law- yers and judges from both the Quebec Court and Superior Court of Quebec, the plan proposes some changes in lawyers' practices and a more efficient use of exist- ing justice system resources. Among its 22 measures are calls for an increase in submissions admitted into evidence and a decrease in the number of pretrial requests it deems "futile or intended to cause a delay." Goodbye hunt- ing- and fishing-related delays. Other measures include the use of videoconferencing for court appearances and client consultations between the Montreal courthouse, where Vallée and Superior Court of Quebec Chief Justice Jacques Fortier announced the action plan, and the nearby Bourdeaux prison. According to Vallée, Montreal's chronic traffic woes, which have reached paralyz- ing new heights this year due to dozens of road and bridge repair and construction projects in preparation for the city's 350th birthday next year, regularly cause import- ant delays in accused court appearances. "That has a domino effect on the whole system," says Vallée. "It causes ser- Untitled-5 1 2016-10-31 11:59 AM

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