The federation, which primarily serves individuals and small businesses, has raised concerns that the working group undertaking the review has been disproportionately Toronto-centric and too focused on commercial litigation. As a result, FOLA says the working group has failed to represent the broader legal community, including rural and regional practices, and its recommendations for reform could significantly undermine access to justice.
The civil rules review (CRR) was launched in January 2024 to conduct a comprehensive and complete review of the province’s Rules of Civil Procedure and identify, through consultation, areas where targeted changes could increase efficiency and access to justice for Ontarians, reduce complexity and costs, maximize the effective use of court resources, reduce delay and leverage technical solutions.
The working group issued a wide-ranging consultation report at the beginning of April that is recommending sweeping changes in areas like oral and document discovery, how motions are handled and court scheduling, as a means of increasing access to justice and reducing expense in the system.
But FOLA is concerned that, if adopted, the changes will lead to escalating litigation costs that could deter Ontarians from seeking legal recourse, reduced opportunities for settlement, a strain on judicial resources due to the removal of meaningful discovery processes, and unique challenges for personal injury litigants, who often rely on procedural fairness to pursue claims.
To that end, FOLA passed a resolution at its recent spring plenary calling for the working group to be reconstituted to “reflect the full diversity of Ontario’s legal landscape,” including regional, rural and bilingual representation, while ensuring meaningful consultation with legal professionals across all regions and practice areas.
“This is a pivotal moment for civil justice in Ontario,” said Rainy River District Law Association president Douglas Judson, who moved the resolution. “We must ensure that reforms do not inadvertently create new barriers for the very people the justice system is meant to serve.”
The resolution is also calling for the working group’s recommendations to be grounded in empirical data, rather than what it calls “anecdotal input from a narrow segment of the bar,” namely its concerns about too large a focus on commercial litigation.
The resolution marks one of several steps FOLA has taken in response to the civil rules review. Other legal organizations such as the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association have also raised concerns about the pace of the review, but provincial Attorney General Doug Downey said recently that the current mid-June deadline for consultation on the CRR’s recommendations would not change.
Commentary on the working group’s review can be sent via email to Jennifer.Smart@Ontario.ca until June 16. Responses provided may be disclosable under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
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