2. The Crown will lead the afternoon triage with equal participation from
duty/defence counsel to schedule as much of the afternoon list as they are
able prior to the start of court. The Registry Quarterback will record from the
Crown and duty/defence counsel the afternoon list and they will ensure the
Crown and duty/defence counsel are aware of all files on the afternoon list at
that time.
3. The following principles guide how the afternoon list is set:
A. All the parties should inform themselves of the time of arrests, to ensure
compliance with Criminal Code, sections 493 and 503.
B. Counsel must be reasonably accurate in their estimation of the length of
time required for contested bail hearings. Failure to complete contested
bail hearings in the estimated time may result in the hearing being stood
down until the completion of the afternoon list or adjourned to another
day.
C. Except in cases where compliance with section 503 (24-hour time limit)
requires an immediate appearance, the parties must make reasonable
efforts to ensure when a matter is called that the appearance will be
meaningful and not simply spoken to and stood down. Files that are not
ready to be spoken to will remain scheduled at 5:00PM and not called
until counsel are ready for something meaningful to happen with them.
Once ready for the files to be called, counsel must immediately advise the
Sheriff Quarterback on the separate private MS Teams channel (not the
live courtroom chat)
D. Files approaching the 24-hour time limit will be given scheduling priority
provided, after consultation with the judge, they can be completed during
the afternoon court sitting bearing in mind all the other files scheduled for
court that afternoon. These files may also be called briefly to meet the 24-
hour time limit and then stood down until later in the afternoon if time
permits, or adjourned to another courtroom where applicable, or to
another day.
E. Subject to the above, youth files (and women on the Island only) have the
highest priority in the afternoon list followed by consent releases. Files
simply being adjourned to another day have the third highest priority and
thereafter, files should be set in the afternoon list based on time
estimates, shortest to longest, but also factoring in any known time or
resource issues with police stations. Files adjourned from the morning
remand hearing list, files from later time zones, and files with sheriff
transportation issues like ferry schedules should also be given some
priority in the afternoon list, as should files involving cash bail which must
be posted by 4:00PM and files involving counsel who have scheduled
matters in other courts at 2:00PM. Files not able to be heard that day will
preferably be adjourned to the Bail JCM to be scheduled on another date
or adjourned by the judge to a morning court list on another date. Bail
hearings with longer time estimates should be adjourned to the Bail JCM
Fix Date List to be scheduled.