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Northwestern Ontario lawyers’ associations warn that civil procedure changes threaten access to justice

  • Rainy River District Law Association
  • 4 minutes ago
  • 6 min read

Changes recommended for civil procedure rules will front-load massive costs on individuals and small businesses that need to sue or defend a claim in court. The Toronto-focused committee recommending the changes has no representation from northern or rural regions.

 

For immediate release – The Thunder Bay Law Association, the Rainy River District Law Association, and the Kenora District Law Association represent lawyers in private practice across Northwestern Ontario. We are speaking out today, together, with an urgent message about sweeping changes being proposed for Ontario’s civil justice system.

 

A Toronto-based working group appointed by the Ford government is proposing a rapid and fundamental overhaul to the Rules of Civil Procedure. These are the procedural rules for legal proceedings in the Superior Court of Justice – cases where individuals and small businesses can sue and defend claims for damages following an accident, a breach of a contract, trespassing, libel, shareholder disputes, employment issues, and estate litigation.

 

The Federation of Ontario Law Associations (FOLA), representing Ontario’s 46 county and district law associations, has repeatedly expressed its significant concerns about the recommendations of the provincial working group. Recently, FOLA’s members unanimously adopting a resolution identifying the serious risks to Ontarians’ access to a fair and affordable justice system if the proposals are enacted. The chief concern – shared by FOLA and other groups – is that the working group's proposals are going to escalate the costs of litigation to price people out of being able to advance or defend claims.

 

To be clear: everyone agrees that civil justice in Ontario is in need of further modernization and efficiency reforms. Fortunately, the courts of the Northwest region continue to lead other regions in getting matters to trial more quickly. Some of the proposed changes would make improvements across the province, such as making mediation of civil lawsuits mandatory and simplifying the enforcement of court orders. However, other proposed changes will likely achieve the opposite – they will increase barriers for everyday Ontarians, especially those without deep financial means. These proposals have been developed with insufficient consultation, no meaningful data, and limited regional representation – with no direct input from rural or northern voices.

 

It does not have to be that way. The government could achieve its stated purpose of faster, less expensive civil justice by less radical means. Instead, it appears that the government has decided experimentation with the justice system is easier and cheaper than giving the system the resources it needs.

 

Unrealistic Consultation Timeline for Sweeping Changes

 

The Civil Rules Review Working Group released its 133-page consultation paper on April 1, 2025, and gave just 75 days to respond. This is a shockingly short window for reforms of this magnitude. By contrast, the last major reform effort in the 1970s (following the McRuer Commission report) spanned years of wide consultation and pilot implementation. These civil reforms touch nearly every Ontarian. Justice reform must be deliberate – not rushed.

 

Trial Retainers: Pricing Ontarians out of Court

 

One of the most consequential proposals of the working group is a shift to an “evidence-first” model, requiring parties to build their entire case immediately after filing a claim. Today, most people can retain a lawyer with an initial fee of $850 to $5,000 to assess the claim and attempt early resolution, with many settling early. Early resolution is also disincentivized if defendants know that plaintiffs need to incur significant costs to commence a proceeding and plaintiffs, having done so, will be unwilling to resolve without recovering those significant expenses. The proposed rules would force lawyers to front-load every case – preparing witness statements, expert reports, and trial documents before the ink is dry on a claim. This shifts legal work – and cost – dramatically forward, effectively requiring us to receive a full trial retainer at the very beginning of a case. Trial retainers can range from $25,000 to $125,000, depending on the complexity and trial length. Civil trials in Ontario can cost almost twice that amount per party.


Civil justice is already financially unavailable to most Ontarians. The proposed changes would make the situation worse. But it is far from clear that those proposed changes would reduce the cost of that trial in every case. Everyday Ontarians with modest claims (employment, wrongful dismissal, contract disputes, personal injury) will be shut out entirely – an unacceptable outcome in a just society.

 

If the goal of the working group is to remove the congestion of Ontario’s courts, it is not an acceptable answer to simply price citizens out of the process.

 

Why Oral Discoveries Matter to Fairness

 

The working group proposes eliminating oral discoveries in favour of early, sworn witness statements. But oral discovery is the civil justice system’s most powerful equalizer. 


  • In Ontario, over 95% of civil cases settle before trial, and oral discoveries play a major role in narrowing issues, testing credibility, and promoting early resolution.

 

  • Oral discovery helps people facing powerful institutions or corporate defendants get the full story and be heard. Without it, the deck is stacked.

 

  • A party’s own written statements are not quick or easy to prepare. Neither are the opposing party’s written statements quick or easy to read and understand.


In cases involving personal injury or employment issues or one or more self-represented litigants unfamiliar with legal procedures, removing oral discovery would undermine due process, impair case assessment, and increase the likelihood of unnecessary trials.

 

It is also simply not possible to obtain witness statements from all witnesses at the front-end of a proceeding, particularly if medical or other professional evidence is required.

 

Court Time is Not Available for More Civil Appearances

 

The proposed judge-led case management model assumes more frequent, if less formal judicial involvement. But Ontario courts are already overwhelmed: 


  • In 2022–2023, Ontario’s civil courts managed over 768,000 active cases, up from 761,000 the year before (Statistics Canada).

 

  • In Toronto, despite a $956 million courthouse, staff shortages have left criminal courtrooms empty and trials delayed (Toronto Star, April 2023).

 

  • Thunder Bay, London, and other courts have seen cases adjourned due to lack of judges and resources.


Ontario’s 2023 commitment to appoint 25 new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, which deals with certain criminal and family cases, and 190 court staff (2023 Ontario Budget) is a good start, but not enough. Without a dramatic infusion of long-term judicial and court funding, adding procedural burdens will only deepen the backlog.

 

Reforms Without Representation

 

Almost the entire membership of the Civil Rules Reform Working Group is based in Toronto, none of the 14 members are from a northern or rural practice setting.

 

In fact, only one of the working group members has a practice that regularly handles cases involving real people – such as personal injury, estates, or small business disputes. The rest represent large institutions, primarily in Toronto. More to the point, the ultimate end-user of the civil justice system – non-lawyers – are not represented at all. The proposed reforms reflect that perspective: well-resourced litigants with internal counsel and institutional support. They do not reflect the needs of the everyday Ontarians, and certainly not those of the individuals and small businesses that appear before civil courts in Northwestern Ontario.

 

We need a system that protects all citizens equally – not one that assumes legal literacy, financial capacity, or Toronto-based access.

 

The Proposals are Not Evidence-Based – Just Rapid and Risky

 

The working group members have admitted that their proposed reforms were not driven by system-wide data or problem identification. Instead, they have proposed a new model without addressing the current issues or proving that the proposed changes will actually improve it. It appears that their proposal is mostly based on their personal, anecdotal experiences from corporate-commercial litigation in Toronto. This is not how we build trust in institutions. We need careful, data-driven solutions – not top-down experimentation at the expense of the public and of court users in regions like this one.

 

Our Recommendations

 

Extensive advocacy has been underway to help Ontarians and their lawmakers understand that these proposals are bad for individuals, businesses, legal service providers, and access to justice. We join others in calling on the provincial government to:

 

  • Extend the consultation period to at least 12 months;

  • Undertake an independent, data-driven analysis of the civil justice system;

  • Engage frontline legal professionals and non-lawyers from across all regions and practice areas;

  • Pilot any significant procedural changes in select jurisdictions; and

  • Increase judicial appointments (including of Associate Justices) and court funding before overhauling procedures.

 

We have written to MPPs Greg Rickford and Kevin Holland to help them understand the impact of their government’s proposed changes on people in their ridings.

 

This Matters to Every Ontarian

 

Civil justice touches nearly every facet of life in Ontario: employment, contracts, injury, estate disputes, housing, consumer protection. These changes, if rushed, risk making access to justice slower, more expensive, and less fair. Lawyers across Ontario are gravely concerned about the impact of the proposed changes. We urge the media, government, and the public to give this issue the time and attention it deserves.

 

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Further information:

 

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Jordan Lester

President

Thunder Bay Law Association

 

Douglas Judson

President

Rainy River District Law Association

 

Chenoah Down

President

Kenora District Law Association

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