A new online platform designed to modernize access to Ontario’s courts is causing delays and confusion for some lawyers, months after its initial rollout in Toronto, according to members of the legal community.
The Ontario Courts Public Portal launched in the fall with the goal of allowing users to file documents, pay court fees and access virtual hearing links for non-criminal matters. The system covers Superior Court family, civil, small claims, bankruptcy, Divisional Court and enforcement cases, as well as provincial court family matters.
The province plans to expand digital access to criminal cases next year as part of a second phase, with full provincewide deployment targeted for 2030. The Ontario government has described the portal as a step toward a more transparent and accessible justice system.
While many lawyers welcome the move toward digitization, some say the new portal is unintuitive and has introduced delays that are slowing down legal proceedings and creating uncertainty for both lawyers and their clients.
According to several Toronto-based lawyers, routine tasks that once took a day or two—such as scheduling motions or having a statement of claim formally issued—can now take weeks. Those delays can compound as cases progress, they say.
Lawyers also report that the portal is not fully integrated with the Superior Court of Justice’s mandatory document-sharing platform and does not always display every case in which a lawyer is involved. In addition, users can no longer search for cases by party name, a feature available under the previous system.
Cases can still be searched using file numbers, but obtaining those numbers requires visiting a public terminal at a courthouse. Toronto construction lawyer Jay Nathwani said that requirement makes access “significantly more cumbersome” and undermines the open court principle.
“If you’re going to roll out a new online portal, it’s reasonable to expect that it works at least as well, if not better, than the system that it’s replacing,” Nathwani said in an interview. “We should not be accepting new systems that make everybody’s lives more difficult.”
Nathwani said his firm submitted a requisition to schedule a motion in October, but by mid-December it still had not been marked as booked in the portal. Until a hearing appears in the system, lawyers cannot file related materials, disrupting established timelines.
He also raised concerns about delays in issuing claims, particularly when statutory limitation periods—the deadlines to start legal action—are approaching. While claims are backdated to the date of submission, lawyers may not be notified of problems with filings until after deadlines have passed.
“It’s the kind of thing that keeps lawyers up at night,” Nathwani said, adding that firms are now filing documents well in advance to manage the risk.
Urgent claims can still be filed in person, but only if they meet strict criteria, said Eric Sherkin, a Toronto commercial litigation lawyer. For standard online filings, Sherkin said he has experienced waits of up to four weeks for claims to be issued.
That uncertainty, he said, can erode client confidence.
“It creates a bit of a lack of confidence of participants in the system if their lawyers are unclear as to when they’ll be able to even get documents back from the court,” Sherkin said.
Sherkin also described a recent experience in which a civil practice court hearing appeared as scheduled in the portal, but neither he nor opposing counsel received a videoconference link shortly before the hearing was set to begin. Court staff eventually provided the link, but only after the hearing had already started.
“What happens if I just don’t get it, and I miss the scheduling hearing?” Sherkin said. “Now I have to report back to my client who knew I was attending court that morning.”
A spokesperson for Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey said more than 25,000 people have registered for the portal since its launch in October, with over 73,000 submissions received.
“We are working closely with users and justice sector partners to gather real-time feedback and continuously improve the portal,” spokesperson Julia Facca said in an email, adding that the system will remain user-centred and transparent throughout its phased implementation.
The Ontario Bar Association said overall feedback from its members has been positive and that communication between the courts, the province and the legal profession is ongoing.
Any issues raised by the association have been addressed quickly, said OBA president Katy Commisso, who described the transition as relatively smooth compared with other digital changes in the justice sector.
“There’s some tweaks, some growing pains,” Commisso said, “but they’re well worth the positive implications of this new platform.”