Government, NDP, lawyers spar over legal funding
Posted January 6, 2012 11:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC’s attorney general is scoffing at an NDP suggestion the province may ask police to scale back arrests to help unclog the court system.
However, lawyers refusing to perform duty counsel as a protest for more legal aid funding say it’s a sign the system needs help.
“I think the comment that the justice critic for the NDP [Leonard Krog] made was unbelievably irresponsible,” says Attorney General Shirley Bond. “This is a very serious issue and the police in British Columbia are doing an exceptional job.”
“The courts continue to operate in the province even while lawyers are refusing to do duty counsel,” Bond stresses. “There are a number of issues at play here.”
“This is a government that currently invests over $68 million in legal aid services for British Columbians. That’s virtually the size of the entire agriculture ministry in our government,” Bond says. “[But] this has to be a discussion about more than just adding more money.”
Bond says creative scheduling could help ease the backlog, such as court telephone services.
Bentley Doyle with the Trial Lawyers Association of BC, the group leading the protest against performing duty counsel, says scaling back arrests might be overly simple.
“[But] the system is so aching for attention by the BC government, so in need of money across the board, not just for legal aid. You’ve got a shortage of judges. You’ve got a shortage of sheriffs,” he says.
Doyle says a meeting between the association and the attorney general’s ministry has been scheduled for later in January.
“The hope is we finally got a dialogue with the right people. The government is well aware of our position that funding needs to be increased for citizens in need of services,” he says. “You’ve got fewer services covered, [it’s] harder to obtain legal aid. This is the core problem.”
Asked about the idea of scaling back arrests in the face of clogged courts, the Vancouver Police Department says court scheduling and capacity issues are not for it to speak to, and they don’t affect the force’s decisions to arrest people.
Meanwhile, the number of criminal cases in adult provincial courts that have taken more than 18 months to get to trial has risen to more than 2,500.
The BC Crown Counsel Association says the government would save money in the long run if it hires more judges, prosecutors and court staff.
