Colin Feasby
Ranjan Agarwal
Today Julie and Dayna discuss what has been happening in Canadian courts following the Pintea decision, made 18 months ago by the Supreme Court of Canada, which set a new standard for how courts deal with self-represented litigants. Pintea instructed other courts to always consider the fact that SRLs are not equally familiar or knowledgeable about law as experienced legal counsel, and that judges should assist to ensure they understand the process and can meaningfully participate. We ask Colin Feasby of Oslers Hoskin Harcourt, who was pro bono counsel for Mr. Pintea, and Ranjan Agarwal, pro bono counsel for NSRLP’s intervention, what they think about the information in our “hot off the presses” report on cases decided across the country involving SRLs post-Pintea.
In other news: Ali recaps our wonderfully successful 5th anniversary “Continuing the Dialogue” event at Windsor Law last week, which saw justice system stakeholders and SRLs from across Canada and the US come together to discuss the state of Access to Justice, and practical steps we can take to reduce the justice gap. Stay tuned for our upcoming Dialogue Event episode!
Related:
Pintea v Johns: 18 Months Later – report by NSRLP’s Kaila Scarrow and Julie Macfarlane
Celebrating – and Using – the Pintea Decision (November 16, 2017)
Ontario Court of Appeal Applies Pintea v Johns (May 24, 2017)
Julie’s blog following the Pintea decsion (April 20, 2017)
NSRLP Heads to Supreme Court of Canada (April 13, 2017)
Other News:
Dialogue Event best practices discussion on Twitter
Dialogue Event goals discussion on Twitter
Dialogue Event quotes and general discussion on Twitter
Jumping Off the Ivory Tower is produced and hosted by Julie Macfarlane and Dayna Cornwall; production and editing by Brauntë Petric; Other News produced and hosted by Ali Tejani; promotion by Moya McAlister and Ali Tejani.
Its hard to know how to respond to the mixed update on how Pintea is being used in the courts, especially by counsel who tried it before the SCC. Thank you for your efforts in following these cases and providing us access to those findings.
Listening to this, made me wonder where it leaves SRL with disabilities?
Have there been any cases besides mine, where a SRL, with a brain injury, who was found incompetent in the within action to try my own geometrically difficult medical malpractice case without appropriately skilled counsel, (after LAA terminated my certificated in error and refused to re-instate it) and had the court revoke the incompetency finding, 3 weeks prior to a trial set against the rules of court, that left me without access to my mandatory experts, lay witness’s, will say statements, a next friend and lost a meritorious case that had been before the court for almost 10 years, in 13 minutes for refusing to participate without counsel?
Am I the only PWD in Canada that this has happened to thus far? I would appreciate knowing if I am the only one fighting for @2J for PWD.
Thank you