Backlog of traffic, criminal cases in B.C. worsened in past year: report

It took one to three months longer on average to process traffic and criminal offences in B.C.'s justice system in the past year than in 2006-07 — an increase that even the provincial attorney general calls "alarming."

It took 10 months on average for traffic offences to make their way through the provincial court system, compared to seven months in the previous year, says the 2007-08 Annual Service Plan report published in June.

For adult and youth criminal cases, it took an average of seven months from charge to judgment, one month longer than in 2006-07.

The report details the activities and performance of the Ministry of Attorney General, which is responsible for administering the court system, during the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2008.

Attorney General Wally Oppal said his ministry is working on speeding up the process of hearing these court cases.

"That's alarming and I can tell you there's nobody more upset about that than I am," Oppal told CBC News in an interview Friday.

The main reason for longer delays in traffic cases is that many justices of the peace, who hear traffic cases, took buyouts or retired, Oppal said.

The delays in criminal cases were in part because the law now requires every piece of evidence to be disclosed to the defence, he said.

"That means, in certain kinds of homicide cases, there can be 40,000 pages of police investigation that the defence is entitled to."

Oppal said one way his ministry is trying to do more to reduce the backlog is to hold bail hearings through video conferencing.

The number of video-conferencing hearings for remand, bail and sentencing increased by 22 per cent over the previous year, the report says.