The Provincial Court continues to plan for a return to personal appearances in the remand process. In addition to its COVID-19-related announcements, the court will resume on-site initial appearances as early as June 15 in some locations. It intends to return to initial appearance lists in all 34 court locations listed in its May 26 announcement as soon as arrangements can be put in place that meet safety requirements.
The Office of the Chief Judge (OCJ) has been meeting with Legal Aid BC (LABC), the Association of Legal Aid Lawyers, the Criminal Defence Advocacy Society and both the provincial and federal prosecution services to plan effective ways to manage lists. There is a significant backlog that has to be managed while the capacity of the court to process appearances is reduced.
The procedures we have adopted will change the primary role of out-of-custody duty counsel from legal advice to legal triage. LABC will rely on Criminal Early Resolution Contracts (CERCs) more frequently to help clients. To learn more, read about the model for duty counsel services.
If you’re on duty counsel rosters, in particular out-of-custody ones, contact your local legal aid office to confirm your willingness to accept assignments as triage duty counsel. If you’re not accepting CERCs in these circumstances, please let your local legal aid office know. We want to be as efficient as we can in placing cases fairly and appropriately.
Considerable local planning is still needed to confirm procedures and start dates. In keeping with the OCJ’s guidelines, please arrange to schedule cases in advance to avoid unnecessary appearances since volumes on the initial appearance lists may be challenging and every avoided appearance will assist. In the remand process, it’s important that triage duty counsel see clients before the case is adjourned. The contact rate falls quickly once clients know they can leave.
We don’t expect triage duty counsel to have time to provide meaningful advice about cases on the fly. The goal is to connect the client to an advice CERC lawyer who can, on a later date, review disclosure, provide advice and take instructions so that decisions can be made before the next appearance.
In any case where a client advises they have previously been represented by a lawyer, triage duty counsel is expected to connect that client with former counsel for these new matters.
We anticipate adjustments as we learn from these new procedures, and will keep you up to date. Please stay in touch with your local legal aid office for updates or to pass along your suggestions for adjustments.
Thank you for your continuing commitment to assist clients in these challenging times.
