Completed

Way Forward Commitment:

The Department of Justice and Public Safety provides legal counsel to all core Government departments and often contracts external legal counsel for additional support. Legal services are a cost pressure for our Government. Our Government will undertake a review of the use of legal services within the core public service to identify opportunities for efficiencies. This review will be concluded by March 31, 2018. Our Government will also encourage ABCs to review their use of legal services to determine potential efficiencies.

What We’ve Accomplished:

• Surveys have been completed by legal services clients within the Provincial Government, lawyers within Civil Division in the Department of Justice and Public Safety, and other civil divisions across Canada.
• This review has been finalized. A report is expected to be posted online in the Fall of 2018.
• Government has also encouraged ABCs to review their use of legal services to determine potential efficiencies.

Executive Summary – Legal Services Review

As outlined in The Way Forward: Realizing Our Potential, Government committed to conduct a review of the use of legal services within government. Civil legal services, as opposed to criminal, are provided by the Civil Division of the Department of Justice and Public Safety, (JPS). The Civil Division provides a range of legal services to government including, where necessary, the retention of external counsel. It provides general legal advice to Government departments and agencies and handles Government’s litigation responsibilities, including general litigation and child protection litigation.

The solicitors in the Civil Division are divided into four units: Family Litigation, Corporate/Commercial, Central Agencies, and Civil Litigation.  The majority of these individuals are located in St. John’s but there are also solicitors operating out of offices in Grand Falls-Windsor, Corner Brook, and Happy Valley – Goose Bay.

There are three major categories of expenses in the Civil Division: Allowances and Assistance, Professional Services, and Salaries and Benefits. Court ordered damages or settlements negotiated by JPS solicitors are funded from the Allowances and Assistance fund. These liabilities arise from the activities of all government departments. The Professional Services Budget provides funding for the retention of external legal counsel and experts. External counsel expenditures which are ordered by the Court, necessitated by litigation, required to avoid a conflict, or result from judicial indemnification are not discretionary and must be funded. These expenses are often incurred on behalf of other government departments. The Salaries and Benefits budget covers 37 solicitors, five legal assistants, one paralegal and two articling students.

The methodology for the review included conducting: interviews with client departments; a jurisdictional scan on service/funding models; staff surveys, and; analysis of previous reviews of the Civil Division. The main findings of the review include:

• Given that settlements generally arise as a result of past conduct or events, there are limited means available to Government to limit such liability.
• Expenditures for court-appointed counsel have proven to be difficult for JPS to control, as JPS has little control over the events in which they will arise or the work being performed. The Court-mandated expenditures from this account have been growing in recent years.
• Most Civil Divisions in other Provinces and Territories require client departments to pay for external counsel.
• A number of different models for funding of government internal law firms exist in Canada. It is unclear if any of the models is actually more cost effective overall for a government.
• In-house counsel is the most cost effective way to provide legal services to a large corporation or a government. JPS’ Civil Division continues to be the cost effective manner to provide quality civil legal services and deal with legal claims on behalf of all government.
• Any further reductions in Civil Division staffing levels, beyond those experienced since 2009, and in particular 2013, will increase turn-around times, lower client satisfaction, increase workloads within the Civil Division and undoubtedly lead to additional expenditures on professional services.
• Client departments identified a need for either more legal services or faster turnaround time on existing work. While development of initiatives to facilitate continuing legal education, practice management, time management, and workplace wellness could produce some modest efficiencies, it is unlikely that this would completely address the demand expressed by client departments for more legal services or faster turnaround on legal services.