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Section II – Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

Strategic Outcome

The public has timely and fair access to the litigation processes of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada.

The Service has only one high level strategic outcome which describes its raison d’être. An efficient and effective judicial system depends on easy access by litigants to the registry of the Courts and efficient management of files and hearings in support of the discharge of judicial functions. The Service focuses its efforts on modernizing and improving services to both the public and the judges.

To that end, the Service has established a long term objective of eventually maintaining complete electronic files. This will allow for easier and more timely access to documents, reduce paper copies produced and maintained, and more efficient management of files.

The Service is therefore concentrating its efforts on the testing and implementation of enabling technologies such as electronic filing, digital audio recording, scanning of documents and electronic transmission of decisions to parties and publishers. At the core of this initiative is the development of a CMS to receive, store and manage documents and other court file information.

Concurrently, the organization continually reviews its internal processes to eliminate delays and inconsistencies and is developing both internal and external service standards to ensure that litigants and the judiciary enjoy efficient and effective support from the Service.

Program Activity by Strategic Outcome

Program Activity – Registry Services

Registry Services processes legal documents and applications for judicial review under the jurisdiction of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada and the Tax Court of Canada. It also ensures proper court records management and adequate operation of the litigation and court access process.

Registry Services are provided through ten permanent offices across Canada and Memoranda of Understanding have been negotiated with several provincial and territorial bodies for the receipt of court documents and use of courtrooms in eight additional locations.

Program Activity: Registry Services
2008-09 Financial Resources ($ millions)			2008-09 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending	Planned	Actual	Difference
39.5	44.0	42.2	409	377	32

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status	Performance Summary
Awareness and understanding of the litigation processes in order to ensure that the public and parties have access to the Courts	Level of awareness and understanding of litigation processes	Improved operational training for staff	Somewhat met	Training of new and existing staff Improvements to training program identified
		Increased assistance for self-represented litigants	Mostly met	Improved content on Federal Court website Increased clarity of information in letters to litigants Public computers installed in Western Regions, Toronto and Ottawa
	Number and quality of information products	Review Information brochures and website content	Met all	Information reviewed and updated
				Brochures updated
Access to the Courts as quickly as possible with as little burden as possible through client service, quality of advice, efficient and timely processing, and impartial service delivery	Number and type of proceedings by office location and language	Parity with 2007â€'2008	Exceeded	Overall increase of 2.8%  over 2007â€'2008
	Average turnaround time by type and level of complexity of proceedings	Key Registry functions identified and draft service standards established	Mostly met	Draft service standards established Manual assessment against standards Performance information to be captured in new CMS
	Number of recorded entries by region	Parity with 2007â€'2008	Met all	99.7% of 2007â€'2008 numbers
Smooth and appropriate functioning of hearings	Extent of satisfaction of the judiciary and parties involved in the hearings with respect to key client service features such as appropriateness of facilities, staff, equipment, safety and security at hearings, etc.	Increased satisfaction level	Met all	Informal tracking of feedback from judiciary shows increased satisfaction with very low error rate
		Development of survey for judges	Met all	Survey developed and approved by the Chief Justices - to be conducted in 2009â€'2010
		Development of survey of staff	Met all	Survey developed - to be conducted in 2009â€'2010
A sustainable system of services to the Courts that make better use of technology, optimize resources and ensure value for money spent	Results of modernization initiatives in terms of improvement to internal processes, case management, better use of technology, etc.	Implementation of Phase 1 of CMS	Met all	CMS Phase 1 implemented
		Development of Phase 2 of CMS	Met all	CMS Phase 2 developed - to be implemented in coming year Resources secured and plan established for development of remaining 5 phases
		Increased use of new technologies	Mostly met	Expanded use of electronic filing, electronic transmission of judgements, electronic scanning Request for Proposals developed for digital audio recording system
	Extent of integrated processes across Courts	Harmonized registry processes across offices, while respecting differences between the Courts	Mostly met	Key processes harmonized, single counter for FCA, FC and CMAC at TDM Building Clarified role of Registrars over NCR and Regional procedures

Benefits for Canadians

The provision of efficient and timely registry services to Canadians facilitates their access to the judicial system. Parties appearing before the Courts – be they counsel, agents or members of the general public – expect high quality services in order that their case may be heard and disposed of with minimum effort and delay. The Registry provides services such as information related to procedures, reception of documents, creation and maintenance of files, scheduling of hearings, support at hearings, preparation and issuance of decisions, and so on. Individuals can access Registry Services in person through ten permanent offices across the country, by telephone or through the websites of the Courts. In the coming year, a vision for moving in a strategic and prudent manner towards completely electronic files for the four Courts will be articulated which will significantly improve the quality of services offered to Canadians.

Performance Analysis

Significant progress was made during the fiscal year on improving the level of service provided by the Registry. During the review period, the governance of CMS project has been significantly strengthened and resulted in considerable progress with the release in May 2008 of Phase 1 of the project and the upcoming release of Phase 2 in 2009â€'2010.

The scope of electronic filing of documents increased significantly in 2008â€'2009. The Tax Court of Canada allows e-filing of all documents, and a Federal Court Notice to the Profession in November 2008 announced that documents in all types of proceedings could now be submitted electronically. As well, a working group with the Canada Revenue Agency has been struck in view of increasing the number of documents filed electronically by that organization. As a result, the number of documents received electronically more than doubled from 6,673 in 2007â€'2008 to 15,020 in 2008â€'2009.

As e-filing is the preferred method of digitally capturing incoming documents, an evaluation of different e-filing approaches will be undertaken in the coming year and the results will assist the Service in developing its longer term strategy.

Moving the Registry Operations of the Federal Court of Appeal, the Federal Court and the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada to the Thomas D’Arcy McGee Building in December 2008 provided the opportunity to establish a single counter for the public to access Registry Services of those Courts.

Draft service standards were developed during the year, following a review of internal processes which identified best practices and opportunities to harmonize and streamline the way we do business. These service standards will be finalized, approved, implemented and tracked in the coming fiscal year.

Lessons Learned

The CMS project has been funded internally over the past several years by the Service. Technical issues and changes in key personnel have resulted in delays in the ultimate delivery date. Government Consulting Services were contracted in late 2008â€'2009 to undertake an independent, third party Project Management Review of the project. It is expected that the findings of that review will inform and strengthen project governance to ensure the final product meets user requirements, provides value for money and is not delayed further.

Throughout the year, Registry Services dealt with a significant vacancy rate which meant increased overtime, staff fatigue and significant effort directed towards staffing activities. Working closely with the Human Resources Services, these staffing processes should be completed early in the upcoming year which will provide stability and relief. The development of core competencies for Registry Services is under way and the implementation of the Human Resources Plan will result in a proactive staffing strategy.

Program Activity â€" Judicial Services

Judicial Services provides direct support to all the judges through the efforts of judicial assistants, law clerks, jurilinguists, chauffeurs, court attendants, and library personnel. The services provided include administrative support, research, documentation, revision, editing, and linguistic and terminological advice, all in support of the judges ability to better discharge their judicial functions.

Program Activity: Judicial Services
2008-09 Financial Resources ($ millions)			2008-09 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending	Planned	Actual	Difference
23.1	27.2	25.9	221	218	3

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status	Performance Summary
Judges have the tools and resources they need to perform their functions in a timely manner	Level of satisfaction of the judiciary with services provided	Judicial Assistant and Law Clerk support available within 24 hours	Met all	System instituted for continuous Judicial Assistant support Roster system instituted to ensure Law Clerk availability
		Library response within two hours	Mostly met	Students, casuals and agency staff used as required to ensure timely service Satisfaction level of judges improved
Members of the Bar and litigants have an increased understanding and awareness of how the Courts work	Feedback from Bar and litigants	Regular meetings of national Bench and Bar and various specialized Bar Liaison  Committees	Met all	Regular amendments to the Rules  following the input of stakeholders
		Regular Rules Committee meetings	Met all	Development of specialized Federal Court Practice Guidelines to assist litigants
		Open Houses of the Courts	Met all	Development of support tools for self-represented litigants
Key stakeholders and the general public have timely information about the status of court proceedings and about judgments rendered	Level of satisfaction of key stakeholders and the general public with timely and accurate information	Decisions posted on website within 48 hours of release	Mostly met	Process issues which could introduce delays identified and addressed
		Translations posted on  website within 6 months of release	Mostly met	Causes of delays between receipt and posting of translation identified
		Release of special Media Bulletins for decisions with significant public interest	Mostly met	Approximately 50 media bulletins issued/posted; some high-interest decisions not captured by Bulletin process
		Response to public / media inquiries to the Federal Court within 24 hours	Met all	Over 500 timely responses to public/media inquiries; positive feedback from Parliamentary Press Gallery
Better response to the needs of the Bar and litigants through a better understanding of their needs	Extent to which the Service has implemented suggestions from Bar and litigants	Follow-up on feedback from: National Bench and Bar Liaison Committee, other specialized Bar Liaison Committees, and Rules Committee meetings within six months	Mostly met	Development of specialized Federal Court Practice Guidelines (e.g., Intellectual Property-complex litigation / Aboriginal law) to assist litigants
	Level of satisfaction of Bar and litigants with responsiveness of the Service	Initiation of process to publish amendments to Rules of Practice within 6 months of  bi-annual meeting	Mostly met	Resolution of other Registry / Court practice issues identified by the Bar

Benefits for Canadians

Judicial Services provides a variety of services and direct support to the judges of the four Courts.  These include administrative support, library services, legal research, chauffeurs and court attendants, translation and revision. The smooth functioning of the judiciary and the ability of judges to hear and dispose of cases in a timely and efficient manner is key to a well functioning judicial system. The Service works closely with the judges to ensure that their needs are met in order that they can devote their time and energy to hearing matters and rendering decisions, for the benefit of litigants.

Performance Analysis

Judicial Services worked closely with the judiciary in 2008-2009 to identify irritants and issues which impact negatively on the ability of the judges to discharge their duties in a timely and efficient manner. Organizationally, it was decided to transfer the units responsible for translation, revision, distribution and posting of judgments from Internal Services to Judicial Services to better manage this process. A comprehensive review of the posting of judgments and the subsequent translated versions was undertaken and issues identified. Streamlining the hiring process for qualified judicial assistants to support the judges was a priority, and Judicial Services worked closely with Human Resources Services to identify solutions. The judiciary has generally been satisfied to date with the progress made in these key areas.

Lessons Learned

Several performance issues of note were identified by Judicial Services and have been or are being addressed. Some delays between issuance of decisions and their posting on the website were found to be related to internal communications processes; these have been largely dealt with. The causes of delays between the receipt of the translation of a decision and its posting on the website were identified; those that are within the control of the Service are being addressed, while in some cases judicial intervention is required. Finally, innovative and proactive means of addressing staffing delays for judicial assistant positions have been explored and implemented to reduce delays in hiring qualified personnel.

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