N.L. government invests in 18 new Crown attorneys amid severe staffing crunch
Provincial government investing nearly $24M to improve justice system
Newfoundland and Labrador Justice Minister Bernard Davis announced Wednesday afternoon that the provincial government is investing nearly $24 million to improve the province's justice system, including adding 18 new Crown attorney positions.
The investment comes after CBC News reported in numerous stories that Crown attorneys in the province were "suffocating" from overwhelming workloads and a critical staffing shortage.
Davis told reporters Wednesday that six new crown attorneys will be added each budget year for the next three years, with the first batch to be hired next year.
"Obviously we want to make the system as strong as we possibly can, and putting Crowns in place, increasing the number of Crowns is an important piece to that," said Davis.
The $24-million investment also includes adding 25 correctional officers, 14 deputy sheriffs and a court security manager for Labrador.
Davis also says funding will go toward digital upgrades for the entire justice system. This includes updating technology in the province's courthouses, something Crown attorney Shawn Patten says is antiquated.
"A lot of the technology in the courthouses, it's obsolete and we need new and better material to help advance not only the prosecution, but as well any evidence defense wants to present," said Patten, who is the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Crown Attorneys Association.
"Right now we're hindered by the technology."
'Six each year looks great'
A national umbrella group for thousands of Crown attorneys and government lawyers previously told CBC News that the provincial justice department should increase the number of Crown attorneys in the province by 25 to 30 positions.
Patten says morale is low among Crown attorneys. He says some lawyers are juggling over 300 files due to ongoing staffing shortages, and he previously told CBC News that there are fewer lawyers handling double the file load in the St. John's region compared to a decade ago.
Although the provincial government has only committed to six Crown attorneys each budget year, it's a number that puts Patten at ease.
"Six each year looks great. I mean, we're not here to say that's not a good thing," he said, adding the new positions will help reduce file loads for many lawyers feeling burnout.
Progressive Conservative justice critic Helen Conway Ottenheimer says the new positions are welcome, but she called the measure reactive.
"I still think that that is not going to really effectively address the problem," she said. "[I] don't want to seem ungrateful, because we are grateful that they acknowledge that there's a problem here."
Davis says recruitment efforts for the 18 new Crown attorneys begin immediately. As for retaining lawyers who are feeling overworked, he says the government has already increased lawyer salaries and is offering retention bonuses to people taking positions in northern communities.
"I'm not saying that that's the full answer," he said. "We know that we're going to work with our key stakeholders to find solutions that, if this is not working well, let's find a way we can make it work."
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