Starting next week, members of the public, litigants, and lawyers in Toronto will have greater online access to the court system, as the province is set to launch the first phase of the Ontario Courts Public Portal. This new initiative aims to improve transparency and accessibility within the judicial system, allowing users to file documents, pay fees, and obtain virtual links for court hearings online.
The portal will go live on Tuesday and initially covers only Toronto-related cases while excluding criminal matters. It will provide digital access for various categories including family law in the Superior Court, civil, small claims, bankruptcy, Divisional Court, and enforcement cases, in addition to provincial court family case filings.
Looking ahead, Phase 2 of the portal development will focus on criminal matters, with a tentative launch anticipated in 2027. A provincewide rollout for this $166-million system is projected for 2030, as revealed by Attorney General Doug Downey in a recent interview. Downey emphasized that the new portal is designed to create a significantly more accessible and robust system, enhancing the public's ability to manage their court cases through improved digital services such as filing, payment options, and document retrieval.
Despite the move toward digitalization, Downey reassured that individuals would still have the option to use traditional paper methods. He highlighted a "digital first, not digital only" approach, indicating a balance between modern technology and traditional processes. The push for modernizing the court system gained urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated the adoption of digital services but was an initiative Downey had already prioritized prior to the pandemic. He recognized the limitations of the existing system, recalling that even basic functionalities, such as payment for filings with a credit card, were not available as recently as 2019.
Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz, who is credited with proposing the digitization of the courts to Downey four years ago, expressed that the launch of this portal marks a historic transformation for the Ontario court system. In a recent speech, he called this new digital framework "long overdue," noting that it will replace the currently disparate technology with a unified, integrated platform that serves all areas of law. He emphasized that the portal is a user-centric solution benefiting judges, court staff, lawyers, and individuals involved in Ontario's trial courts.
Downey shared that the decision to procure the new platform from Thomson Reuters, awarded the contract in 2023, rather than developing a new system from the ground up, has facilitated a more rapid deployment of the portal. He rationalized this approach as a way to leverage existing expertise to customize the platform to meet specific needs instead of starting from scratch.
This modernization effort comes in stark contrast to previous attempts by the former Liberal government, which endeavored to implement a court information management system sharing similar goals of providing electronic access to court records. However, that initiative was ultimately abandoned in 2013 after an investment of $10.3 million failed to produce results.
