If justice delayed is considered justice denied, but that didn't seem to matter to a certain assistant crown attorney in Oshawa as she caused a trial to be halted, apparently by envy of the defence lawyer's MAcBook. That she was aided and abetted by a justice of the peace who seems to be a bit behind his superiors in adapting to a digital world does nothing to contribute to respect for the legal system.
Trial adjourned due to lawyer's laptop
An Ontario stunt-driving trial was adjourned before it began yesterday, when a Justice of the Peace banned a defence lawyer from using a laptop computer in his courtroom. Piotr Lakomy of Oshawa was standing trial over an incident last August in which he is alleged to have raced his Subaru Impreza against a Mustang, and was stopped by police as the Mustang got away. But before the Crown prosecutor began her case, she objected to the slim aluminum MacBook that defence lawyer Sean Robichaud had just switched on. Justice of the Peace H. Malik agreed that it violated the rule against "electronic recording devices," and ordered him to shut it off. When Mr. Robichaud said it contained his notes and he could not proceed without it, Mr. Justice Malik adjourned the trial until August.
link: Trial adjourned due to lawyer's laptop National Post April 15, 2010
Admittedly, the laptop computer could be used to record the trial proceedings, but within the profession, if there isn't sufficient trust to be satisfied courtroom protocol will be followed, it is a very sad state of affairs indeed. I'm more inclined to think the prosecutor was more concerned about the image the defence portrayed; organized and with all his resources at his fingertips on a nice laptop while she, maybe, was a comedy of paper files spilling off the table about to happen. No evidence; just the image that immediate springs to mind. Jury trial or trial by judge alone, the guy with the MacBook just can't help looking smarter. One can only imagine what would have happened if counsel had approached the Bench with his notes on an iPad!
The "no laptop" order is unusual, given that lawyers frequently use both laptops and BlackBerrys in court, and the Supreme Court of Canada even provides computers for lawyers and journalists. But it also reveals a justice system that is uncomfortable with evolving technology. For example, Ontario's Integrated Justice Initiative was designed to bring about the "paperless courtroom," in which all documents would be stored on computers for easy searching and sharing, but it ended in failure.
"It's weird, but you have to understand how slowly the legal profession changes," said Luigi Benetton, technology reporter for Lawyer's Weekly magazine. As he writes in the current issue, the modern hospital operating theatre looks nothing like an operating theatre from 100 years ago, but courtrooms look almost exactly the same.
link: Trial adjourned due to lawyer's laptop
The comment about courtrooms looking much the same as they did 100 years ago causes one to think about the impact on justice of delaying the implementation of contemporary technology. Time for crown attorneys, and little league justices of the peace too, to get with the 21st century.
