Welcome to the New Judges' Survival Guide.
As newly appointed judges, we face new challenges on a daily basis. Once at the top of our respective professional pyramids, we now find ourselves back at the bottom of the ladder. Despite our involvement in the legal field, nothing can truly prepare us for this crossing of the mirror. We are faced with unexpected obstacles of all kinds. Even if we have written a lot in our lives, writing a judgment is a multi-faceted challenge. We ask ourselves a thousand and one questions. Sometimes we don’t dare raise them with our colleagues. These questions can poison our lives. We try to answer them on our own, often at the cost of avoidable errors.
This Guide is designed to identify these questions and provide succinct answers that you can use in the heat of the moment. It identifies some of the pitfalls to avoid and provides good tips on how to get around them. This is not meant as a comprehensive book of doctrine or bench book. What we are offering is a tool that is intended to be simple to use and that will provide you with clear, quick and immediate solutions. It contains numerous links that will allow you to navigate as you see fit.
In short, this is the Swiss Army knife for your early years.
Welcome to the Judiciary!
Hon. Daniel W Payette, Québec Superior court
Acknowledgements
It bears mentioning that a guide such as this one is the result of teamwork. First, a warm thanks to the NJI for having allowed me to realize this project. In particular, I wish to thank its two Chief Judicial Officers in function during the writing of the Guide, Justices Adèle Kent and Tom Crabtree. I am forever grateful to NJI’s dynamic duo, Jillian Boyd, and Kierston Fu for their tireless and professional work. Their patience and their constant support were precious to me.
I also wish to mention the invaluable work of the Advisory Committee that we set up in order to ensure that the content of the Guide responded to the needs of all Canadian judges. From east to west, they are:
• The Honourable Justice Peter Bryson, Nova Scotia Court of Appeal
• The Honourable Justice Isabelle Germain, Superior Court of Québec
• The Honourable Judge Julie Veilleux, Vice President, Tribunal des professions, Court of Québec
• The Honourable Justice Daniel Dumais, Superior Court of Québec
• The Honourable Justice Alexandre Boucher, Superior Court of Québec
• The Honourable Justice Christopher Grauer, British Columbia Court of Appeal
• The Honourable Judge Kristen Mundstock, Provincial Court of British Columbia
I am also indebted to the exceptional contribution of retired Québec Court of Appeal judge, the Honourable Louise Mailhot, CM, OQ, AdE. Justice Mailhot was one of the pioneers of the new approach to judgment writing, focused on the reader. Her book, Écrire la décision, Guide pratique de la rédaction judiciaire, remains a reference after all these years. Justice Mailhot was the first to read the modules. I treasured her input and constant encouragement.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not underline the tireless work of my assistant, Ms. Chantal Bissonnette. Having a novelist as an assistant does have its perks, especially when that novelist is also a remarkable woman.
Disclaimer
Please note this resource is not a substitute for argument, evidence or research where the facts of a given case are complex.