by Erin Durant

Origially posted on LinkedIn, May 8, 2025

My brain is exploding trying to figure out how to represent our less privileged clients through this new civil rules system.

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Gerard Kennedy, Ph.D

Assistant Professor, University of Alberta Faculty of Law

The proposed reforms to Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure, based on the work of the Ontario Civil Rules Review (“CRR”) Working Group have, to put it mildly, been controversial. Is this illustrative of a profession inherently resistant to change? Or are there real concerns? And where is the line between reasonable hypotheses and undeniable data on what works, and what does not, in our civil justice system? In the interests of full disclosure, I served on the appeals subgroup, and, as such, will not be commenting on those proposed amendments publicly. However, outside this context, there is much to be lauded in these potential changes. Opponents should query whether they are needlessly resistant to changing a familiar status quo. But not all concerns can be dismissed out of hand, especially in the absence of firm data regarding what does—and does not—work to achieve access to justice.

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Matthew Dylag, PhD

Assistant Professor of Law, Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University

Fundamentally, the Rules of Civil Procedure aim to strike a balance between, on one hand, efficiency and, on the other, justice. This balance needs to be carefully weighed because, as noted frequently by judges, lawyers, and academics, courts cannot grant justice if processes are so slow that it takes years for cases to meander their way through the system or so expensive that people cannot afford to access the system. To this end, it makes sense to periodically revisit the rules and ask if their current iteration achieves this balance. The current version of Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure came into effect in 1985 and it is clear that there are problems with it. Cases are taking way too long to make their way through the system and litigation is far too expensive for the vast majority of Ontarians. However, when revising the rules care should be taken not to swing too far in the opposite direction. This seems to be what is happening with the current Civil Rules Review which has allowed barely ten weeks for the submission of comments.  

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by Josiah MacQuarrie, Lawyer and Mediator

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/in/josiah-macquarrie-5242b8b8/, between April and June of 2025

I’ve been thinking a lot about the CRR Phase 2 proposals and I just can’t get on board with most of them.

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Welcome back to my series celebrating some proposals from the Civil Rules Review that (i) seem to be good ideas, and (ii) could be rolled out quickly.

Since 2002, mediation has been mandatory for Ontario civil actions under Rule 24.1, but only in three parts of Ontario: Windsor, Ottawa, and Toronto. The Civil Rules Review proposes to expand it provincewide, and this seems like a good idea to me.

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