15th Congress of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Quebec

The 15th congress under the topic of the judicial officer and legal security

The Minister for justice, Kathleen Weil, came to address the opening speech of the congress and to speak to the 200 judicial officers about the future of the profession. On this occasion, the minister underlined the excellent work done by the judicial officers on the field, while pointing out the key role they play within the judicial system. She also praised the dynamism of the chamber of the judicial officers of Quebec. She also tackled the so much awaited subject, that of the reform of the Code of civil procedure. The message could not be clearer. The judicial officers occupy a central place in the chapter of enforcement. She also shared her enthusiasm as regards the provision on compulsory on-going training which will oblige the members of the order to maintain a high level of competence.

Huissiers Quebec

The President of the Chamber of the judicial officers of Quebec, Louis-Raymond Maranda, presented to the Minister for justice Huissiers Quebec, a company held by the whole of the judicial officers from Quebec. This company wishes to provide the ministry justice and to other justice counterparts a service of transmission and an electronic service of documents. Following the example of France and other countries, the Chamber of the judicial officers of Quebec wishes for the judicial officer be become the only trusted third party as regards dematerialization. President Maranda was inspired by the presentation of a workshop chaired by Alain Bobant, a judicial officer, specialist in new technologies and president of the National Federation of Trusted Third Parties (France), at the time of the permanent council of the UIHJ held in November 2008 in Paris. The workshop related to the dematerialization. Incidentally, the Association Law Economy and Communication (Adec), formally visited Quebec and enquired on the necessary technology in order to start its work. One of the wishes of President Maranda is that the Huissiers Quebec Company can generate enough profit for a pension fund for the judicial officers from Quebec.

Order for Payment

Françoise Andrieux, judicial officer and general secretary of the UIHJ, spoke to the judicial officers from Quebec about the functioning of the Order for Payment, a procedure that the National chamber would wish to find in the reform of the Code of civil procedure. President Maranda is convinced that this procedure would contribute to achieve the goals of the ministry for justice, as well as the wish of judges and citizens, i.e. reducing the backlog of the courts and giving a faster access to justice. Mrs. Andrieux also lectured the legists from the ministry of justice on the order for payment procedure. During her stay in Quebec, our colleague trained more than fifteen trainer judicial officers, giving them the ideal tools for better quality training for the new judicial officers willing to join the profession.
President Maranda spoke to the members about training of judicial officers as “Identity Checking Agents”. It is a first step as regards dematerialization. It is necessary that all judicial officers are certified in order to have a public/private key. The Chamber of Quebec will carry out this certification in collaboration with the ministry for justice. Thereafter, all the judicial officers from Quebec will have to follow a training course on how to certify a lawyer, a notary or even a citizen, i.e. any person wishing to address to the Government, the ministry for justice or Huissiers Quebec. A new step towards dematerialization. In conclusion, a great success for the congress!