Chief judge of provincial court warns of stresses caused by backlog

The chief judge of the Nova Scotia Provincial Court is voicing concerns about the backlog in the court system.

The chief judge of the Nova Scotia Provincial Court is voicing concerns about the backlog in the court system.

Pam Williams made her comments Friday (May 26) at the province's first State of the Courts event.

"The increase in the complexity of cases, the volume of cases, and the complement, unfortunately, of judges has not kept pace with the increase in resources afforded to the Crown or to Nova Scotia Legal Aid," Williams said in her prepared remarks.

"Or it hasn't kept pace, either, with the demographics of our growing province."

She said the pandemic brought good, bad and ugly.

The good, she said, was that courts had to adapt to changing technologies by holding remote hearings and accepting electronic documents when public gatherings were banned.

Williams described the bad as the stress caused by having to deal with the backlog, but noted that stress is not unique to the court system.

"The ugly, I'm afraid to say, is the ongoing backlog of criminal court cases, which is significant," Williams said.

"It has significant impact on the people we serve, it has significant impact on members of the public and the rest of the system."

Williams said judges are making an extra effort to cope in the short term. But she said that cannot be sustained.