Written by David Sterns on April 13, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LITIGATORS\u2014and anyone who cares about access to justice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ontario\u2019s proposed civil justice reforms won\u2019t just eliminate oral discovery\u2014they will gut documentary discovery as we know it. In the name of \u201cefficiency,\u201d the rules would replace meaningful disclosure with a cursory document exchange, followed by a \u201cpin the tail on the donkey\u201d regime where plaintiffs must guess which documents to request\u2014without knowing if they exist. And unless your request is highly specific, it will be denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Imagine trying to prove a fraud, conspiracy, abuse, or product liability case under those conditions. Serious med-mal case? Good luck with that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The irony? This is happening at the very moment AI tools have made large-scale document production and review faster, cheaper, and more accessible than ever. We\u2019re at the dawn of a revolution that could finally level the playing field between powerful institutions and vulnerable plaintiffs\u2014and instead, they’re recommending severely curtailing discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So who benefits from eliminating document discovery? Certainly not the victims of financial fraud, institutional abuse, defective products, or systemic misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you work with vulnerable clients or in complex litigation, now is the time to engage. The consultation is open until June 16, 2025. We are preparing access-to-justice\u2013focused submissions and welcome others to contribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s make sure well-intentioned reform doesn\u2019t put justice even further out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reach out to me at dsterns@sotos.ca if you\u2019d like to get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by David Sterns on April 13, 2025 LITIGATORS\u2014and anyone who cares about access to justice: Ontario\u2019s proposed civil justice reforms won\u2019t just eliminate oral discovery\u2014they will gut documentary discovery as we know it. In the name of \u201cefficiency,\u201d the rules would replace meaningful disclosure with a cursory document exchange, followed by a \u201cpin the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"no-feature-img","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[14,15,18,20,17,16,19],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urgent","tag-accesstojustice-2","tag-civilreform-2","tag-fraudvictims","tag-justiceforall-2","tag-litigation-2","tag-ontariolaw-2","tag-rulesofcivilprocedure-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}