Written by David Sterns on April 15, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LITIGATORS: Some defenders of Ontario\u2019s proposed civil justice reforms are saying, \u201cWell, in arbitration you have to marshal all your evidence up front, and discovery is limited there too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s true\u2014but also beside the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arbitration is primarily used by sophisticated, well-resourced parties\u2014often corporations\u2014who choose that forum by contract. It is not where we resolve systemic abuse, conspiracy, product defect, fraud, medical malpractice or personal injury claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Those cases\u2014the ones involving vulnerable people, power imbalance, and institutional misconduct\u2014belong in the superior courts. Courts have a constitutional mandate to do justice, not just to resolve disputes quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ontario\u2019s courts are being reshaped using a dispute resolution model built for Bay Street, complete with crippling cost consequences for the unsuccessful party. That might work for commercial arbitrations. It does not work for people trying to uncover abuse, fraud, or harm they didn\u2019t create and can\u2019t see.<\/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<\/a> if you\u2019d like to get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #AccessToJustice<\/a> #CivilReform<\/a> #OntarioLaw<\/a> #Litigation<\/a> #FraudVictims<\/a> #JusticeForAll<\/a> #RulesOfCivilProcedure<\/a> #LegalReform<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by David Sterns on April 15, 2025 LITIGATORS: Some defenders of Ontario\u2019s proposed civil justice reforms are saying, \u201cWell, in arbitration you have to marshal all your evidence up front, and discovery is limited there too.\u201d That\u2019s true\u2014but also beside the point. Arbitration is primarily used by sophisticated, well-resourced parties\u2014often corporations\u2014who choose that forum […]<\/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-104","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\/104","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=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civiljusticewatch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}