When a Provincial Court judge found Prince George’s Dawson Smith not guilty in January of violating a court order about his hunting licence, Smith immediately asked court staff about ordering a transcript.
Little did he know it would take a $436.80 bite out of his wallet and he would be kept waiting until March.
Judge Cassandra Malfair decided Jan. 10 that another judge’s written order, which allowed Smith to continue hunting while he re-took the provincially required safety and ethics course, prevailed over the judge’s oral reading.
Smith was told he could order the word-for-word record of his day in court from the Ministry of Attorney General’s official provider, Veritext Litigation Solutions Canada Inc. He placed his order Feb. 11 for the 10-day priority service. Three weeks later, on March 4, he got the hearing transcript. But he said he had to wait even longer, until March 22, for a signed copy of Malfair’s verdict.
“No, they didn't apologize,” Smith said in an interview. “It was interesting because I phoned numerous times, because I really needed the transcript. I had retained a lawyer in regards to that matter.”
Smith is not alone.
Last October, Livingston, New Jersey-headquartered Veritext took over the BC courts contract from J.C. Wordassist Ltd. and Verbatim Words West Ltd. Since then, lawyers and self-represented litigants are waiting longer to receive transcripts of court proceedings and judges’ decisions.
Christy Pratt, the principal for Veritext Canada, did not respond for comment.
A transcript of a judge’s oral verdict on March 3 in Prince George took until April 28 to be published on the BC Supreme Court website. A total eight weeks after Justice John Gibb-Carsley’s decision to acquit Dakota Rayn Keewatin and Kerridge Andrew Lowley of a 2022 machete attack in a Prince George motel.
During a June 11 procedural hearing in Prince George Provincial Court, defence lawyer Anthony Zipp asked for an adjournment. He needed a copy of a hearing transcript in order to decide the next move for a client facing drug and firearms charges.
“If I could predict when Veritext would produce transcripts, I would perhaps be emperor of the world,” Zipp said before Malfair. “I don't know anyone that could predict that these days.”
Officials in the Ministry of the Attorney General had said the ministry was addressing the backlog “directly and collaboratively” with Veritext, which had already made changes in order to to speed-up transcript delivery.
Jenny Manton, the assistant deputy minister in charge of the Court Services Branch, said April 24 that the backlog had peaked at 1,000 transcripts but had been reduced to 35.
“They have really been working well with us to address the backlog issues,” Manton said. “So we're still going through some transition issues with the company, but they're very committed to making improvements and obviously providing a good service within the court.”
She said the department would continue to monitor the situation, including quality issues, until it is stable and “we have confidence in their ability to respond to the transcript requirements.”
Delays in transcripts are leading to delays in bail hearings, according to Greg Phillips, president of the Trial Lawyers Association of BC. TLA members have reported waiting weeks after ordering a three-day transcription turnaround from Veritext.
Phillips said the backlog puts defence lawyers like him “in an uncomfortable position of having to essentially ask for more time through no fault of our own.”
Canadian Lawyer Magazine reported in 2021 about Veritext’s Canadian expansion, beginning in 2019 with Toronto’s Neesons, then westward to Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta before buying BC’s Reportex, United Reporting and Kamloops Reporting Services in 2021.
Phillips, who is also a civil litigation and injury claims lawyer with the Nanaimo firm Johnston Franklin Bishop, said it did not surprise him that Veritext would expand so aggressively across the country.
“But I don't think anyone expected that it would be such a rocky transition (in BC),” Phillips said.
Could the backlog contribute to the violation of an accused person’s constitutional right to a timely trial?
A landmark 2016 Supreme Court of Canada decision, named for the appellant, accused BC drug trafficker Barrett Richard Jordan, set 18 months as the presumptive ceiling between a charge and the end of a Provincial Court trial and 30 months for a BC Supreme Court case.
“These things do tend to snowball, so I think it's inevitable that that we will see a Jordan application at some point as a result of delays,” said Phillips.
