Frank is the name they give the software that runs the Ontario Court system.  

Everyone knows Frank has problems.  Even the Attorney General knows Frank is no good.  The A.G. released a report about Frank, a report so negative that if Frank had been a human being, his feelings would have been seriously hurt.

Frank “was not a robust information system,” the report said. Frank did not “capture essential information,” which, if you ask me, is a pretty big flaw for a system intended to capture essential information.

If it were up to me, I would have summoned Frank to an HR meeting.  I would have taken Frank’s pass card and called security to walk him out of the building

But there was no talk of getting rid of Frank.  “Keep using Frank,” some guy in an office said, “we gotta keep Frank because he cost a lot of money.” If they got rid of Frank, the people who paid for Frank would be embarrassed.  They might look bad, and of course that could not be allowed.  

When Frank realized he was untouchable, things really went off the rails in the Ontario courts.  Frank went nuts, and he started dismissing cases. 

Frank dismissed new cases. Frank dismissed old cases.  Frank dismissed some cases only days before a fixed trial date.

But Frank’s favourite trick was to dismiss cases that were already over, cases where the plaintiff had already won and received judgment. Many lawyers received those orders, and laughed about them.  Silly Frank, dismissing cases that were already over.  How amusing.

But Frank’s errors were not very funny. Defendants who had already been to court and lost, received letters from Frank saying the case against them was dismissed, implying that they could forget all about the judgment against them and the writs that attached to their home. Some unfortunate defendants believed what Frank said and refused to pay the judgments against them. By the time someone set them straight, they paid a lot of extra interest and legal costs. But it could be worse than that. In at least one case* the defendant refused to believe Frank was wrong until she lost her home.

After years of issuing nonsensical dismissal orders, one day Frank got tired and stopped.  Nothing was announced, no one admitted anything, no compensation was paid to the victims. Frank just stopped dismissing cases, and the lawyers were happy.

 But last week Frank started issuing dismissal orders again, and everyone knew what that meant.   Frank is on the fritz again, and I hope someone tweaks him soon before he does too much harm.

 *  I will mention that this story was reported to me by an Ontario lawyer who wishes to remain anonymous.  He showed me the paperwork to verify what he is saying, and the Ministry’s report on Frank is a matter of public record.  It’s on the web if you want to look it up.