New judge assigned to Nanaimo’s strained provincial court system

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Nanaimo is consistently one of the most strained provincial court houses in the province caseload wise.

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According to the most recent semi-annual Time to Trial report by the Provincial Court of B.C. released at the end of March, Nanaimo’s courthouse experiences the most delays in matters proceeding to trial.

Nanaimo’s provincial courthouse far exceeds averages among its counterparts and provincially set maximum limits in all 12 categories for short, medium and extended trials for criminal, family and small claims matters.

Criminal trials, on average, take between nine and 13 months to proceed to trial in the Harbour City, which is comparable to prior reports from the Provincial Court of B.C.

Family and small claims matters face similar backlogs, all of which, on average, reported at least nine months for cases to proceed to trial.

In a statement to NanaimoNewsNOW, the Ministry of Attorney General acknowledged the continued backlogged provincial court workload in Nanaimo.

“Access to timely justice is critical, and we recognize the concerns about delays in Nanaimo. The Ministry of Attorney General continues to work with the Courts to improve timeliness and efficiencies to further reduce delays.”

The statement pointed to increased numbers of sheriffs to reach full staffing and technology advancements, such as video conferencing, to help people, judges and lawyers from around the province participate in hearings.

Time to trial data is gathered from 69 of B.C.’s 78 provincial courthouses.

Nanaimo’s provincial court system is responsible for the ever-expanding greater Nanaimo region, spanning between the south end of Ladysmith to Deep Bay, representing nearly 200,000 people.

A provincial courthouse previously existed in Parksville, however it was swept up in widespread closures in 2002 of smaller provincial courthouses.

Criminal and family matters take exceedingly long, on average, to proceed to trial in Nanaimo.

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