Legal Aid Research Series Court Side Study of Adult Unrepresented Accused in the Provincial Criminal Courts Part 1: Overview Report


Figure 2.3 Disposed Cases Sample: Description of Court Case Data Used for Each Site
Site Data Collected and Collection Strategy
Sample Description Using Manual Records Using Automated System
Kelowna, BC All 1020 cases disposed in 2001   All data extracted electronically from JUSTIN
Edmonton, AB 623 cases disposed in late 2000 and 2001 All data coded from court manual records  
Regina, SK All (roughly 10,000) cases disposed in 2001   All data extracted electronically from JAIN
Brandon, MB[8] All (2,761) court appearances on all first appearance/set date court dockets for the last 3 months of 2001 Representation data coded manually from annotated court dockets Other key data on those case appearances extracted electronically from CCAIN
Scarborough, ON A random sample of 495 cases disposed in September through November 2001 All data coded manually from Informations and other manual court records  
Sherbrooke, QB 397 cases disposed in late 2001 All data coded from court manual records  
Bathurst, NB 250 cases disposed in late 2001 All data coded from court manual records  
Halifax, NS A random sample of 509 cases disposed in September or October 2001 Data on representation at each appearance manually coded from Informations, court reporters’ notes and annotated dockets Other key data on each appearance for each case extracted electronically from JOIS
St. John’s, NF A random sample of 501 cases disposed in late 2001 Data on representation at first and last appearance coded from Informations, court reporters’ notes and annotated dockets Other key data on each appearance for each case extracted electronically from PCIS

[8] Given the recent Introduction of the automated information system in Brandon, it was not possible to obtain data on all appearances for a sample of disposed cases. Instead, we opted for collecting data on representation, and on events and decisions that occurred,s in a very large sample of court appearances.