Judge From Afar

There are reports that an Ontario judge was inadvertently assigned cases to hear while on a trip outside the province. How many judges might be abroad and hearing cases is not known, since judges are not required to seek guidance from superiors regarding travel.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with remote work. But do special considerations apply to presiding over hearings? Perhaps, since the court has made it clear the judge mistakenly scheduled would not be given new hearings until their return to Canada.

There are undoubtedly extenuating circumstances that may warrant international travel to accommodate specific circumstances. And judges aren’t public figures in the sense that they must (or even should) account for their off-time.

Still, it’s obvious the pandemic has an uneven societal impact.