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PC Justice Critic Calling for Review of Staffing Levels in Crown Attorney’s Office
The Newfoundland and Labrador Crown Attorneys Association says some prosecutors have up to 200 cases on their plate, and sometimes work until early morning preparing for a trial. PC Justice Critic Helen Conway Ottenheimer believes that Crown attorneys are too important a player in the justice system to allow shortcomings in staffing to impact their ability to always be at the top of their game.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-08-12
More Crown lawyers needed to tackle increasingly complex cases, says head of association
The head of the association that represents Newfoundland and Labrador prosecutors is calling for the Newfoundland and Labrador government to invest in Crown attorneys to help shoulder a growing number of increasingly complex cases. PC MHA Helen Conway Ottenheimer said she's heard the association's concerns and wants the government to launch a review into Crown resources, including staffing.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-08-11
Crown Attorneys Plead For More Staff to Match Rising Crime Rates
Shawn Patten, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Crown Attorneys Association,.... notes while crime is increasing, the number of prosecutors has not been adjusted to deal with it. He’s calling on government to correct the imbalance in the name of public safety.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-08-03
N.B. reaches tentative deal with Crown prosecutors union
The New Brunswick government says it has struck a tentative collective agreement with the union representing the province’s Crown prosecutors. In a news release, the province said the details of the agreement will be confidential until it is ratified.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-07-17
Crown prosecutors vote 99% in favour of strike action amid labour shortage, system ‘crisis’
New Brunswick Crown prosecutors and family court Crown counsel have voted 99 per cent in favour of strike action. They have been in contract talks with the provincial government for more than a year and warn the "crisis" facing the criminal justice system is growing, due to recruitment and retention problems.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-05-28
Shortage of prosecutors: towards abandoning prosecutions
Crown prosecutors fear the worst in the face of the crisis which is slowing down the functioning of the criminal justice system in New Brunswick. Calls for help have been made for two weeks. Me Yves Duguay, Vice-President of the New Brunswick Association of Crown Prosecutors and prosecutor in Bathurst, admits that the situation has been worrying for a while.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-03-27
Judgment, Identity, and Independence
Cassandra Burke Robertson*
Whenever a new corporate or governmental scandal erupts, onlookers ask “Where were the lawyers?” Why would attorneys not have advised their clients of the risks posed by conduct that, from an outsider’s perspective, appears indefensible? When numerous red flags have gone unheeded, people often conclude that the lawyers’ failure to sound the alarm must be caused by greed, incompetence, or both. A few scholars have suggested that unconscious cognitive bias may better explain such lapses in judgment, but they have not explained why particular situations are more likely than others to encourage such bias. This article seeks to fill that gap. Drawing on research from behavioral and social psychology, it suggests that lawyers’ apparent lapses in judgment may be caused by cognitive biases arising from partisan kinship between lawyer and client. The article uses identity theory to distinguish particular situations in which attorney judgment is likely to be compromised, and it recommends strategies to enhance attorney independence and minimize judgment errors.
