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July 2004 Update

BCYCNA Success Story: Attorney General Suspends Court Fee

The BC & Yukon Community Newspapers Association is pleased to inform its members that after several meetings with the Liberal Caucus and the Attorney General’s office, a temporary suspension of the $8.00 fee charged on court record searches will be implemented. The fee was introduced in March this year and while it seemed minuscule per search, it would have cost our industry an estimated $50,000 per year.

“Community newspapers – reporters and editors – rely on access to these documents like no other medium,” said George Affleck, General Manager of the BCYCNA. “So when we heard that some of our member papers would suddenly be asked to pay thousands of dollars for information that used to be free, we had to act fast.

Brad Alden, Board member and government relations chair, accompanied a delegation to meet with the Liberal caucus in Victoria. Following that meeting, Liberal MLAs convinced the government to revisit the issue.

After more consultation, the Attorney General's office acknowledged the BCYCNA’s concerns and acted on them.

“For that, we thank Attorney General Geoff Plant as well as Caucus who listened attentively to us, ” said Affleck.

Besides the actual cost to member newspapers, the BCYCNA argued that the fee was wrong for a number of reasons, most notably because criminal court documents are considered public record and should be accessible to all members of the community. By putting a fee on these documents, it essentially creates a barrier to public information.

BCYCNA past president Brian McCristall put it this way: “This fee could well have a chilling effect on the part of newspapers to gather information in the public interest and might lead to reduced coverage of criminal acts and convictions at a time when the public interest is best served by more information, not less.”

The provincial government posts court information on the Justice Information System – JUSTIN. However, JUSTIN, basically a desktop computer, is available at only fourteen courthouses around the province. Moreover, not all information the media needs is available on JUSTIN. For example, the Record of Proceedings, which is the record of all court appearances, including who represented the accused and the Crown, and what happened at each appearance, is omitted from JUSTIN. This poses a barrier for reporters to effectively do their job in reporting information to the general public in a timely and accurate manner.

The Attorney General’s Office has promised to improve JUSTIN by adding details of the Record of Proceedings. Once JUSTIN is upgraded and hopefully expanded to more locations, the court record fee will most likely be reinstated.