Ontario courts pilot going paperless

Ontario is making the first steps toward a paperless legal system, a move that the Ministry of the Attorney General has called a “game changing initiative”.

QP Briefing reports that from August 10, select Toronto court cases will pilot CaseLines—a secure cloud platform that houses uploaded documents for virtual trials.

The article also notes that although lawyers are pleased with the province’s decision, more work needs to be done to modernize the legal system.

Litigation partner Jeremy Opolsky told QP Briefing that Canadian lawyers just want the industry to bear a resemblance to the 21^st century.

"So we're not in awe of some whiz-bag, newfangled U.S. technology. We’re just looking for some semblance of the 21st century,” Jeremy said.

Jeremy also said that he hoped the new platform would make legal proceedings more efficient.

He pointed out that with the current paper-based system, it’s common for a judge to be missing a document they need from a lawyer and that counsel invest a lot of time in organizing documents ahead of trial to ensure a judge has everything they need to proceed.

Subscribers can read the full piece on QP Briefing’s website.

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