Photo by Curtis Galbraith

By Curtis Galbraith/EverythingGP

Court

Province boosts funding for Alberta Court of Justice

Apr 8, 2023 | 1:50 AM

The province says its new budget includes a $ 20 million dollar funding increase for the Alberta Court of Justice.

The money will be used to hire 100 new judicial clerks, judicial assistants and legal counsel.

It will also mean three new justices of the peace positions will be filled and three new judges will be hired, one in the Southern Region, one in Edmonton and one in Calgary.

The judicial appointments include:

Catherine Regier received her law degree from Queens University in 1992. After serving as an associate at Niblock and Company Barristers & Solicitors from 1993 to 1994, she has worked at Pritchard & Co. Law Firm LLP since 1994, first as an associate, and as a partner since 2008. She is experienced in family law – divorce, collaborative divorce, mediation and adoption. She has been appointed to the Southern Region starting April 26.

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M. Jennifer Shaften, KC, received her juris doctor from the University of Calgary in 1993. She worked as a sole practitioner, with legal firms and Legal Aid Alberta, before joining Foster LLP, where she has been a managing partner since 2015. Her areas of practice are child representation, family dispute resolution, mediation, arbitration, parenting coordination and litigation. She has been appointed to the Calgary Family and Youth Division effective April 19.

Carrie-Ann Downey, KC, received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Alberta in 2002 and a Master of Laws from Osgoode Law School in 2019. From 2006 to October 2022, she worked as a Crown prosecutor in the Edmonton office and is currently the chief prosecutor and executive director for the Operations and Strategic Support Office for the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service. Her areas of specialization include sexual violence, homicide, robbery, driving-related deaths, crimes against children and high risk/dangerous offenders. She has been appointed to the Edmonton Region starting April 17.

The government says this brings total funding for the court to $137 million, adding it handles 100,000 criminal cases, 17,000 more cases involving families and child protection plus 10,000 civil matters.

As of April 1, the former Provincial Court of Alberta is now known as the Alberta Court of Justice.

“Over the past five decades, Alberta’s front-line, trial-level court has grown in size and complexity and has evolved to meet the changing needs of the province and its people. We have requested this new name to reflect that growth and that evolution. The name Alberta Court of Justice more clearly communicates the nature, purpose, and independence of our work on behalf of Albertans,” says Chief Justice of the Alberta Court of Justice Derek Redman in a release.

The court says documents with the old name will still be valid. Temporary signs will go up in the next couple of weeks with permanent ones coming when new signs are also put up for the Court of King’s Bench.