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MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL MAY 2 1 2010 LAW LIBRARY CIVIL LAW PROGRAM REVIEW MEETING TOMORROW TODAY FINAL REPORT AUGUST 31, 1993 . * Ministry of the Attorney General. Civil Law Program Rev.ew Staw Program Review ' ' meeting tomorrow today. report. KF Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney 316 General. Civil Law Program Review 057 Project 1993 Civil Law Program Review project: meeting tomorrow today : final report. WN*K qeJeRAL ^ UBBABV CIVIL LAW PROGRAM REVIEW PROJECT FINAL REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPIC PAGE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY i FINANCIAL SUMMARY ix PURPOSE OF THE REQUEST 1 ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT 1 BACKGROUND 1 Description of the Review 1 Timing of the Review and Methodology 2 Context of the Review 4 Nature of the Data 5 Current Delivery System 6 THE OPTIONS 7 IMPROVING THE DELIVERY OF LEGAL SERVICES ORGANIZATIONAL AND OPERATIONAL CHANGES 11 Introduction 11 A. Management of Legal Resources 13 B. Delivery Structure 17 C. Branch Structure 25 D. Teams 31 E. Approach and Commitment 32 ESTABLISHING THE DIRECTION 33 A. Vision 33 B. Human Resources 35 (i) Responsibility 35 (ii) Staff Skills 36 (iii) Support Staff 39 ENHANCING ACCOUNTABILITY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGEMENT 4 0 A. Office of the Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Civil 40 B. Management Groups 41 C. Customer Service 45 D. Divisional Support 48 E. Legal Director Role 51 F. Management Organizations 52 G. Management Information Systems 53 H. Accountability Structures 55 I. Implementation 57 J. Infrastructure 59 K. Private Sector Retentions 60 L. Communication 63 M. Funding 65 APPENDICES Appendix "A" Appendix "B" Appendix "C" Appendix "D" Appendix nEH Appendix "F" Appendix "G" Appendix "H" Appendix "I" Appendix "J" Appendix "K" Appendix "L" Appendix "M" Appendix "N" Appendix "0" Appendix "P" Appendix "Q" Appendix "R" Appendix "S" Appendix HTn Appendix "U" Appendix nVn Appendix "W" Appendix "X" Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Ontario Council of University Libraries https://archive.org/details/mag_00063264 CIVIL LAW DIVISION PROGRAM REVIEW PROJECT FINAL REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION • The purpose of this paper is to report to Treasury Board on the recommendations for changes and enhancements to current legal services delivery to ministries, agencies, boards and commissions. BACKGROUND • The review, a joint initiative of Treasury Board and the Ministry of the Attorney General, was undertaken to determine whether resources available to government for legal services were being used as effectively and efficiently as possible. • Legal services provided by the seconded legal services program and the Crown Law Office - Civil are included, as well as legal services provided to schedule 1 agencies, boards and commissions, by the offices of the Public Trustee and Official Guardian, and civil legal services purchased from the private sector. • The review was to address several issues: the government mandate to review all programs as part of a revised budget process (the current delivery model has been in place since 1972); the reasons for significant overall growth in seconded legal services in the last few years, along with increased private sector law firm retentions; the division's ability to meet demands for legal services, especially "signature" initiatives, from within existing resources; the division's inability to move resources to meet emerging and government "signature" priorities, as well as meet ongoing service needs. 11 TIMING AND METHODOLOGY • The review began on January 4, 1993, and was scheduled to be completed by the summer of 1993. • The review undertook two rounds of consultation. The first was, primarily, focus groups of division staff and client representatives to gather information about the current delivery system - what was, and was not, working well and where opportunities to improve service delivery could be found. This round was completed in April, 1993. • The second was, primarily, town hall or open meetings to receive commentary, feedback and suggestions regarding the service delivery options that were proposed for discussion as a result of the first round of consultation. This round was completed in June, 1993. • Issues emerged under the following broad themes: human resources (including people and career planning); organizational and structural (including business decisions, planning, relocation and decentralization, technology, relationship with the MAG, and funding); and customer service (including consistency and access to service, duplication of effort, and risk). • In parallel with the consultations, a number of working groups examined specific issues related to the program review, including the provision of legal services in other jurisdictions, customer service and performance standards, the use of outside counsel, relocation, infrastructure, linkages to other projects and initiatives, innovative management techniques, and the kinds of legal work currently being done within the division. CONTEXT AND FINDINGS • The second round of consultation identified that the proximity of legal staff to client groups and division staff expertise in client program and policies were a strength of the current delivery system that should be maintained. This Ill round also identified that there were certain core areas of practice that were common to many, if not all, client groups and that there were opportunities that could be realized in delivering these services in a coordinated way. Centralized delivery for all legal services received little, if any, support. © The review operated in a rapidly changing environment with the introduction of the government's expenditure control plan, reforms to the Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act and the introduction of Social Contract Act. In addition, the review was related to, and operated within the context of, the Ministry of the Attorney General's strategic planning exercise and the social justice review (which considered delivery initiatives for the Official Guardian, the Public Trustee and the Family Support Plan and other ministry exercises). RECOMMENDATIONS • Many of the recommendations are stand alone. However, they are intended to operate as an interconnected package of enhancements. The recommendations reflect the advice of the working groups and the submissions made throughout the review both in writing and through the consultation sessions. • The recommendations acknowledge and build on existing strengths and are divided into three categories. A. Improving the Delivery of Legal Services which has three organizational and two operational change recommendations. (i) The grouping or clustering of legal services branches with some affinity of interest. Legal directors, with input from clients, will be asked to make recommendations regarding the appropriate groupings. Each group will be chaired by a representative chosen from the legal directors or senior counsel in the branches represented in the group. The groups will use peer review for performance appraisal within each group. iv The group will work together as a team to coordinate overall resource and human resources issues and, where appropriate, legal advice for the group. Each legal services branch and ministry will contribute, on an yearly basis, staff resources which can be used at the discretion of the Assistant Deputy Attorney General - Civil, for workload equalization, projects, and to meet corporate priorities. The proposal for the first year is 10% of staff resources (lawyer and non-lawyer). The appropriate level of the contribution will be reviewed yearly. A corporate recognition of the impact of this corporate commitment upon ministry abilities to meet ministry specific priorities is required. (ii) The establishment, on a phased basis, of core practice groups in the following areas: labour relations (building on the pilot project currently underway at Management Board); central litigation (building on the Crown Law Office - Civil); aboriginal issues (building on the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat and ministries' coordination underway); and legal services to regulatory agencies, boards and commissions (building on the work of the Tribunals Task Force). As a result of the controversy regarding the configuration of core practice groups in regulatory offences/prosecutions and corporate-commercial/advisory further feasibility analyses of these groups will occur. All groups to be established within 12 months and evaluated within the next 6 months for a total phasing-in period of 18 months. (iii) Consistent with the establishment of self-directed work teams, the reconfiguration of legal services branches to remove management layers such as supervisors, deputy directors, etc. (iv) The introduction of self-directed work teams replacing the current hierarchical structure found in some organizations.