Meaningful Disclosure

Meaningful Disclosure

Candice Chan-Glasgow, Director, Review Services and Counsel

 

August 7, 2020

 

In a decision released last month, R. v. Cuffie, 2020 ONSC 4488 (CanLII), the Ontario Superior Court of Justice considered whether the Crown’s disclosure of non-searchable PDFs constitutes “meaningful” disclosure.

 

The Crown provided disclosure in nine tranches, and each tranche of disclosure was accompanied by a spreadsheet which functioned as a table of contents.  The spreadsheet listed the file name of every item disclosed, the folder in which the file was located, and the date the item was disclosed.  Approximately 7,000 “written documents” (over 318,600 pages) were disclosed, in addition to over 9,000 audio files, videos, and photographs. … Read More

Heuristica Proposes Better Disclosure Rules for Construction Arbitration

Heuristica Proposes Better Disclosure Rules for Construction Arbitration

Despite some initial trepidation, lawyers arbitrating construction cases by teleconference have found the “new normal” to be efficient and cost effective.  But the inconveniences associated with face-to-face arbitrations are minuscule compared to the costs and risks associated with the document disclosure process.  We need a “new normal” way to request and produce relevant documents in a virtual process.

 

It’s time to consider a standard, simplified disclosure rule that takes advantage of available technology to improve the outcomes of construction arbitration.

 

In our experience, many of the pain points associated with the exchange of documents could have been avoided had the parties adopted a mutually agreeable framework at the outset of a matter, and prior to the review and exchange of productions.… Read More