I have been practising law for over a quarter of a century and acting as a mediator and arbitrator for many years now. One constant is that lawyers complain about our civil litigation system being too slow, costly, inefficient, and unpredictable. Another constant is that we don’t do much about it, even though there are options available.
We have significant changes on the horizon for the Ontario civil litigation system. A recent article—Strategic Use of New Rules: Practical Tips for Litigators by Michael Puopolo and Kristen Shorer (Aird & Berlis LLP)—contained some excellent advice on how to approach those changes. I want to follow up on that by emphasizing that lawyers may be able to achieve some of the benefits of those changes now through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), rather than waiting for new rules to mandate those changes.
As Mr. Puopolo and Ms. Shorer explain in their article, the forthcoming revisions to the Rules of Civil Procedure represent a "significant reimagining" of civil procedure in Ontario. The primary goal is efficiency, aiming for a resolution within two years. This is a significant improvement from six years, which is Ontario’s current average (see Strategic Use of New Rules: Practical Tips for Litigators ). However, a two-year timeline is still far from swift. The strategic use of ADR provides prompt, customized finality that the public court system, even with its planned reforms, cannot match.