Basic Ontario Superior Court Data

Though the Ontario Superior Court has itself stopped disclosing information on its operations (having ceased to do an annual report with the 2017/2018 year) and has never published data on its performance, via use of Freedom of Information Act requests, along with the ‘open courts’ principle, it is possible to gather information on the relative function of the court.

My Request:

Subject: Court Data Request – FOIA Submission Confirmation #46569098
From: Michael <michael@michaelsfirm.ca>
Date: 2023-05-15, 10:26 a.m.
To: MAG Analytics & Evidence Branch <AskAEB@ontario.ca>
CC:
BCC
Greetings,

I submitted the below identified FOIA request this morning, and as some of the data may fall within the purview of Court’s Administration, wished to forward it to your attention. I am hoping all of the below data can be timely provided to me so that I may publish same, and make it available for use in academic articles.

1.To confirm that in 2022, there were 203 full time Superior Court Judges (https://www.fja.gc.ca /appointments-nominations/judges-juges-eng.aspx).

2. To determine the number of full-time equivalent Judges from the Super-numeraries (i.e. if two Super-numerarie Judges each work half time, that would be the equivalent of one full time Judge. In the event actual days worked is not tracked, that data can be extracted from taking the amounts paid to all Super-numarie Judges, dividing by their daily rate, then further dividing the result by the average number of days worked by Superior Court Judges each year).

3. To confirm that 21 Superior Court Judge positions remained vacant throughout 2022 (or to provide the average for the year were there slight fluctuations in the number of vacancies).

4. For a breakdown of the number of Judges assigned by region, along with a breakdown of the number of full time equivalent Super-numeraries assigned by region, i.e. that the Central East Region had 11 Judges plus 2 full time equivalent Super-Numaries for instance.

I understand the Judicial regions to be as follows:
Central East Region
Central South Region
Central West Region
East Region
Northeast Region
Northwest Region
Southwest Region
Toronto Region
2023-09-30, 12:47 p.m.

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5.For a breakdown of the number of Judges and full time equivalent Super-numeraries by region, assigned to criminal, family and civil cases, i.e.
Central East Region, 8 Judges assigned to criminal, 1 full time equivalent Super-numerary assigned to criminal, 1 Judge to family and 1 to civil.

6.For the Toronto region, to provide the number of Judges and Associate Judges assigned to the commercial list.

7.To list the total number of Associate Judges for the Superior Court of Justice in 2022, and to provide a breakdown as to how many are assigned to each judicial region, and how many are assigned to criminal, family and civil cases within each region.

8.To identify the number of cases received and disposed of in 2020, 2021 and 2022, for criminal, family, civil and small claims, by judicial region.

9. To identify the number of outstanding cases at the end of 2022 for criminal, family, civil and small claims, by judicial region.

10. To list the number of motions filed per judicial region for 2022, broken down for criminal, family and civil.

11.To list the number of unique procedures in use across Ontario courthouses to schedule civil motions (with unique meaning at least 1 step different).

12. To list any benchmarks or targets for the disposition of criminal, family, civil and small claims matters (i.e. civil claims within 5 years of filing, as noted to be lacking in the Auditor General’s 2019 report).

13. To list any performance data showing Superior Court Performance regarding achieving timely disposition (from item 12), as set by any benchmarks and targets,

14. To provide any standard performance reviews forms (i.e. blank evaluation forms), if any, used by the court to evaluate the performance of the Chief Justice, Regional Senior Justices and/or Judges, and/or to otherwise indicate whether any Judges are evaluated on a yearly basis upon any measurable metrics.

15. In each of the 3 regions where civil mediation is mandatory, for the years 2022, 2021 and 2020, how many such cases were mediated in each, and of those, how many mediations were successful.

16. To provide a breakdown of the caseload per Judge in 2022 (i.e. Judge X is responsible for 62 criminal cases, Judge Y has 73 etc.)

17. To provide the number of decisions rendered in 2022, for criminal, family and civil.

18. To provide the number of appeals in 2022 for criminal, family and civil, and for each, the number that were successful.
19.To identify the total budget of the Superior Court of Justice for 2022, separating Provincial and

Federal contributions (i.e. including amounts paid for by the Federal Government for Judicial salaries, plus any other amounts paid for by them, along with all amounts paid for by the Provincial Government, plus any amounts paid for by revenues generated by the courts).

20.For the number of full-time equivalent Court Services Division staff as of December 31, 2022.

21.For the amount spent on those full-time equivalent Court Services Division staff in 2022.

22.To indicate the average number of sick days taken by Court Services Division staff in 2022.

23.For the amount spent on courthouse facility maintenance in 2022 (across all courthouses).

24.For the amount spent on Zoom in 2022.

25.To identify the number of full days when both court clerks and court reporters (broken down for each) were assigned to a physical and/or virtual court.

26.To be provided with the Ministry of the Attorney General’s internal Civil Procedure Manual.

27.If not included as part of the Civil Procedures Manual, any guidelines given to staff regarding the rejection of civil documents.

28.To be provided with the Ministry of the Attorney General’s internal Family Procedure Manual.

29.To be provided with the most recent ‘Self-Assessment Survey’ for the Ontario Superior Court, including any such assessments specific to civil and family law.

30. Any documentation indicating why the Superior Court stopped compiling/publishing an Annual Report.

31.Any Superior Court documentation (specifically regarding civil cases) on what information is to be kept secret from the public.

32. For a copy of the public access protocol per section 7 of the ‘Memorandum of Understanding between the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario and the Attorney General of Ontario, dated May 5, 2008, or if none has yet been developed, for documents setting forth the current status of such development.

33. For the number of criminal cases dismissed by the Superior Court for delay in 2020, 2021 and 2022 (i.e. per sec. 11(b) of the Charter).

34.For the following courthouses, the number of full time employees in court services responsible for filing civil documents: Brampton, Durham, Hamilton, Milton, Newmarket, Toronto, London, Ottawa, Kingston and Windsor.

35.For those same courthouses, an organization chart of civil court services.

Michael B. Lesage
Barrister, Solicitor & Notary Public
Michael’s Law Firm Professional Corporation
3 Loretta Drive, Box 864
Virgil, ON
LOS 1T0
Tel: (647) 495-8995
Email: michael@michaelsfirm.ca
Visit my website at www.michaelsfirm.ca
imap://michael%40 michaelsfirm%2 Eca@imap.gmail.com:993/fe…
This email may concern privileged and confidential material and its transmission does not cor From time to time, the spam filters eliminate legitimate emails from clients. If your email.

The Response

Subject: RE: Follow Up
From: MAG Analytics & Evidence Branch Date: 2023-09-28, 1:50 p.m.
To: Michael
CC: MAG Analytics & Evidence Branch

Good day Michael,

As per the direction from the FOI letter (dated June 19, 2023), the following questions 20-29, 32, 34, and 35 were not processed. For a response to these questions please follow the direction previously received in the FOI letter.

The Superior Court will consider all requests for court information derived from its case management system FRANK. Your requests for information that are not captured by the Court’s case management system and/or that has the potential to undermine judicial independence are denied. Additionally, the Superior Court is not in a position to answer a number of your questions and should be directed to the Ministry of the Attorney General.
Q1. To confirm that in 2022, there were 203 full time Superior Court Judges (https://www.fja.gc.ca/appointments- nominations/judges-juges-eng.aspx#on).
A1. On December 31, 2022, the Superior Court of Justice had 256 full-time judges (Michael’s note – these Judges are assisted by 27 clerks, and in Toronto, each clerk is assigned to 10-12 Judges, whereas other courts have 1 clerk per Judge) . The court’s judicial complement fluctuates as, for example, new judges are appointed. For that reason, the figure provided is as of a single point in time.

Q2. To determine the number of full-time equivalent Judges from the Super-numeraries (i.e. if two Super-numerarie Judges each work half time, that would be the equivalent of one full time Judge. In the event actual days worked is not tracked, that data can be extracted from taking the amounts paid to all Super-numarie Judges, dividing by their daily rate, then further dividing the result by the average number of days worked by Superior Court Judges each year).

A2. The number of the court’s supernumerary judges as of August 1, 2023 is available on the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs’ website.
Q3. To confirm that 21 Superior Court Judge positions remained vacant throughout 2022 (or to provide the average for the year were there slight fluctuations in the number of vacancies).

A3. In 2022, the court’s judicial vacancies varied and, on a quarterly basis, were as follows:

as of March 31, 2022-25
as of June 30, 2022 – 13
as of September 30, 2022 – 21
as of December 31, 2022-22.

Q4. For a breakdown of the number of Judges assigned by region, along with a breakdown of the number of full time equivalent Super-numeraries assigned by region, i.e. that the Central East Region had 11 Judges plus 2 full time equivalent Super-Numaries for instance.
A4. The number of judges appointed to each region is available on the court’s website.

Q5. For a breakdown of the number of Judges and full time equivalent Super-numeraries by region, assigned to criminal, family and civil cases, i.e. Central East Region, 8 Judges assigned to criminal, 1 full time equivalent Super- numerary assigned to criminal, 1 Judge to family and 1 to civil.

A5. Aside from the court’s family patent judges, the court’s judges are appointed as generalists.
Q7. To list the total number of Associate Judges for the Superior Court of Justice in 2022, and to provide a breakdown as to how many are assigned to each judicial region, and how many are assigned to criminal, family and civil cases within each region.

A7. On December 31, 2022, the court had 16 Associate Judges. The regions to which they are assigned are
2023-09-30, 12:48 p.m.

See the pdf version of the Response letter, with working hyperlinks.

Frank Data Provided