Annual Report 2008-2009

Letter from the Chief Administrator
to the Minister of Justice

September 30, 2009

The Honourable Robert Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Ontario

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0A6

Dear Minister:

Pursuant to subsection 12(1) of the Courts Administration Service Act, I am pleased to submit the sixth annual report on the activities of the Courts Administration Service for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

The report presents an overview of CAS’ activities and accomplishments from the beginning of April 2008 to the end of March 2009. It also conveys the important work realized by CAS’ employees in providing quality registry and administrative services to the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada and their clients.

Yours truly,

R.P. Guenette
Chief Administrator

Message from the Chief Administrator

It is with great pleasure that I submit this Annual Report to Parliament which provides an overview of accomplishments of the Courts Administration Service (CAS) for 2008-2009. The organization continues to improve services to both the judiciary and the public, in view of fulfilling the spirit and intent of its enabling legislation.

CAS is a model for the administration of court services that is unique internationally and has garnered attention from jurisdictions from around the world. We provide services to four separate, independent federal superior courts of record and their clients while maintaining their independence from the executive branch of government. The participation of CAS in numerous international judicial exchange projects speaks to the expertise and quality of the services provided by CAS employees, and I am proud of our achievements in this regard.

CAS continued to focus its efforts and energies over the past year on modernization and technology. Our ultimate objective is to eventually have the capacity to maintain completely electronic court files (that mirror the official hard copy versions). To that end, the number of documents received electronically has more than doubled over the previous year. Significant progress has also been made in other related areas, such as the continued development of a new Case Management System (CMS) that will support the business of the four courts we serve. Projects involving the scanning of documents and the development of digital audio recording solutions for our courtrooms are continuing, and we are planning for the ultimate integration of these technologies in state of the art “e-courtrooms” across the country.

This past year saw important progress in our attempts to consolidate the majority of the operations of CAS in the National Capital Region in a single building. The Thomas D’Arcy McGee Building has been designated as the long term accomodation solution for the organization, and a common Registry counter has been established within that facility. We will continue to move most of our operations to that building as space becomes available.

I am proud to be part of an organization that is a key player in the smooth running of the Canadian judicial system and would like to thank the employees for their continued commitment to excellence.

Raymond P. Guenette

Table of Contents

The Courts Administration Service

Overview

Our Vision, Our Priorities

The Courts we Support

Registry Services
Providing Registry Services
Electronic Case Management System (CMS)
Electronic Filing
Document Scanning
Digital Audio Recording
Electronic Distribution of Judgments and Orders
Reviewing Processes to Improve Service Delivery
Feedback on our Services

Judicial Services
Office of the Chief Justices
Law Clerks Programs
Judicial Assistants
Library Services
Revision Services
Identifying Issues

Corporate Services
Human Resources
Administrative, Facilities and Security Services Division

Appendices

Financial Reports

How to Contact CAS

The Courts in Statistics

Glossary

The Courts Administration Service

Overview

The role of CAS is to provide registry, judicial and corporate services to four federal courts of law – the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada.

CAS is a model for the administration of court services that is unique internationally and has garnered attention from jurisdictions from around the world. We provide services to four separate, independent federal superior courts of record and their clients while maintaining the independence of the courts from the executive branch of the government.

The services provided make it easier for individuals, companies, organizations, and the Government of Canada to submit disputes and other matters to the courts. They also enable the courts to hear and resolve the cases before them as fairly, expeditiously and as efficiently as possible.

Our mandate

• to ensure the effective and efficient provision of services to the four courts
  and their clients;
  
• to enhance the judicial independence of the courts by placing them at arm’s length from the Government of Canada; and
  
• to enhance accountability for the use of public money.
  

Our functions

• providing litigants and their counsel with services relating to court hearings;
  
• informing litigants about rules of practice, court directives and procedures;
  
• maintaining court records;
  
• acting as liaison between the judiciary, the legal profession and lay litigants;
  
• processing documents filed by or issued to litigants;
  
• recording all proceedings;
• serving as the entity where individuals seeking enforcement of decisions made by the courts and federal administrative tribunals, such as the Canada Industrial Relations Board and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, may file pertinent documents;
  
• providing judges, prothonotaries and staff with library services, appropriate facilities and security; and
  
• providing support services to the judiciary.

Powers and functions of the Chief Administrator

• effective and efficient management and administration of all court services, including court facilities, libraries, corporate services and staffing;
• structuring registry operations and preparing budgets, in consultation with the chief justices of the four courts, for the requirements of those courts and the related needs of the Service.

Our Vision, Our Priorities

CAS’ mission is one of excellence. We work daily towards the ultimate goal of offering a single point of service, in both official languages, while enhancing the judicial independence of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada.

CAS’ vision is to be recognized as a national and international model of excellence in the administration of justice. We also ensure that Canadians are able to have access, as quickly as possible, to an efficient, fair and precise process for dispute resolution in each of the courts that we serve.

The broad priorities for CAS for 2008-2009 are related to reviewing, harmonizing and modernizing the way we do business and continuing to develop a work environment that will meet our needs and those of our employees in the years to come.

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The Courts we Support

Established in 2003 when the Courts Administration Service Act came into force, CAS has the mandate to provide efficient registry and administrative services to the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada.

These four courts are superior courts of record. The courts were created by the Parliament of Canada pursuant to its authority under section 101 of the Constitution Act, 1867 to establish courts “for the better administration of the Laws of Canada.”

Federal Court of Appeal

The Federal Court of Appeal has jurisdiction to hear appeals of decisions of the Federal Court and the Tax Court of Canada and certain statutory appeals as stated in legislation. It also has exclusive jurisdiction to hear applications for judicial review of decisions of 17 federal boards, commissions and tribunals listed in section 28 of the Federal Courts Act. The Federal Court of Appeal is an additional court of law, equity and admiralty in and for Canada, for the better administration of the laws of Canada; it continues to be a superior court of record having civil jurisdiction. Parties to a proceeding in the Federal Court of Appeal may be granted leave, or permission to appeal the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada if the case involves a question of public importance. Pursuant to section 5(1) of the Federal Courts Act, the full judicial complement of the Federal Court of Appeal consists of the Chief Justice and twelve judges. For further information on the Federal Court of Appeal, please refer to www.fca-caf.gc.ca.

Federal Court

The Federal Court is a trial court. It has original, but not exclusive, jurisdiction over cases by and against the Crown (including Aboriginal law claims) and proceedings involving admiralty law and intellectual property law. It also has exclusive jurisdiction over national security proceedings and appeals under 110 federal statutes, as well as applications for judicial review of the decisions of all federal boards, commissions and tribunals other than those over which the Federal Court of Appeal has jurisdiction. This jurisdiction includes, in particular, applications for judicial review of decisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board. Pursuant to section 5.1(1) of the Federal Courts Act, the full judicial complement of the Federal Court consists of the Chief Justice and 32 other full-time judges. For further information on the Federal Court, please refer to 
www.fct-cf.gc.ca.

Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada

The main function of the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada is to hear appeals from courts martial, which are military courts established under the National Defence Act and which hear cases under the Code of Service Discipline found in Parts III and VII of that Act. Judges of the Federal Court of Appeal and the Federal Court, as well as certain incumbent trial and appellate judges of the provincial superior courts, are members of this Court. For further information on the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada, please refer to www.cmac-cacm.ca.

Tax Court of Canada

The Tax Court of Canada is a specialized court of law that decides matters involving taxpayers and the federal taxation authorities. The Court enables taxpayers and businesses to resolve disputes arising from such issues as payment of an income tax amount, goods and services tax rebates, and eligibility for employment insurance benefits and the Canada Pension Plan. There are two separate appeal procedures at the Tax Court of Canada: the general and the informal. Under the general procedure, formalities play an important role and many rules of procedure must be followed at all stages of the appeal process. The informal appeal procedure allows for simplified rules of procedure and more flexible evidence rules than under the general procedure. Pursuant to section 4.(1) of the Tax Court of Canada Act, The Tax Court of Canada shall consist of a chief justice, an associate chief justice and not more than twenty other judges. For further information on the Tax Court of Canada, please refer to www.tcc-cci.gc.ca.

The Judges

On March 31, 2009, theFederal Court of Appeal consisted of the Chief Justice, 9 judges and 5 supernumerary judges.

The Federal Court consisted of the Chief Justice, 27 judges, 1 supernumerary judge, 6 deputy judges and 6 prothonotaries.

The Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada consisted of the Chief Justice and 59 designated judges.

The Tax Court of Canada consisted of the Chief Justice, the Associate Chief Justice, 18 judges and 3 supernumerary judges.

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Registry Services

Providing Registry Services

What we do

CAS provides Registry Services to the four federal courts listed in the previous section. The Registry Services Branch provides all operational and registry functions necessary for the smooth and efficient functioning of the courts, including the maintenance of court files and provision of services to the public.

Registry Services has offices and staff in Ottawa, as well as in regional offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montréal, Québec City, Halifax and Fredericton. CAS has also negotiated Memoranda of Understanding with provinces and territories to assure basic registry functions for the Federal courts in St. John’s (Newfoundland & Labrador), Charlottetown, Saint-John (New Brunswick), Regina, Saskatoon, Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit.

Registry Services is primarily a service organization and, as such, must constantly seek to improve its business and processes to better serve its clients. In 2008-2009, Registry Services invested much time and energy on several service improvement initiatives.

Electronic Case Management System (CMS)

It is CAS’ vision to ultimately maintain completely electronic files for all courts, and to support the establishment of state-of-the-art electronic courtrooms across the country. In an effort to achieve this vision in a gradual, strategic and coordinated manner, CAS continues with the development of a new electronic Case Management System (CMS).

The development of the new CMS is being conducted in different phases over a three-year period and is expected to be fully implemented in 2010-2011. Phase 1 of the project was released in May 2008 which brought users of the existing systems onto one single platform and allowed them to access the system through a common interface. This represents a significant improvement over the previous situation in which staff had to access two different existing legacy case management systems.

As well, considerable progress was made on the development of Phase 2 of the project (Electronic Document Reception) with the assistance of front-line staff that helped with the design the functionalities, allowing the new system to receive, store and access court documents electronically. Most of the work on Phase 2 was completed in 2008-2009 and the functionalities “went live” in July 2009 – an essential first step towards the goal of complete electronic files for all four courts.

In 2008-2009, developmental work also began on the other 4 phases of the project which will continue through 2009-2010. The final 4 phases are expected to be completed in 2010-2011.

Finally, in order to help the organization improve the way it is managing the development of the Case Management System, an independent management review of the project was undertaken, which will result in recommendations to strengthen the governance and management of this key project and ensure that user requirements are met without delays.

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