There were nearly 1,000 new court cases more than those concluded at the Courtenay courthouse last year, according to a new data program released to the public by the Ministry of Justice Wednesday.
The province noted the new online corrections data dashboards, which converts raw data into a user-friendly format, are part of its promise to promote transparency and accountability within the justice system.
The data dashboards allow users to examine data and generate results into bar graphs, using specific variables, which include location, type of court (Supreme or provincial), age and gender.
Data is available from the past four fiscal years, beginning in 2006/2007.
"By allowing the public, media, researchers and stakeholders to freely access and use open data on courts and corrections, we are encouraging collaborative and innovative ideas to improve our justice system," said Minister of Justice and Attorney General Shirley Bond in a press release.
According to the data, the 2009/2010 fiscal year proved to the busiest for the Courtenay courthouse, as there were 3,147 new cases (civil and criminal). In that same period, it was also tied for the lowest amount of concluded cases at the provincial level, at 1,686 cases.
During the course of that year, data showed the number of court sitting hours was second-lowest, at 1,121 hours.
Provincewide, 2010/2011 proved to be the second-busiest year, as there were 297,152 new cases, although it led the way with the most concluded provincial court cases, with 204,962.
Nearly half of adult cases took between one and 60 days to conclude throughout the province, with only 5.79 per cent of the 297,152 cases taking between 181 and 240 days. The average case length was 74 days.
In Courtenay, 48.8 per cent of cases last year were between one and 60 days, although 13 per cent of cases lasted between 241 and 365 days.
To learn more or use the data dashboards, visit www.justicebc.ca/en/rm/data.
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