Justice Rick Libman helps legal professionals handle summary conviction matters

Legal education isn’t just for lawyers.

As Ontario Court Justice Rick Libman points out, the vast majority of matters in his court are summary conviction cases, which fall within the scope of practice for paralegals licensed in this province.

That was part of the inspiration for the creation of the Osgoode Certificate in Handling Summary Conviction Offence Cases, on which Justice Libman serves as the program director. Now in its seventh iteration, the popularity of the course has prompted a switch to a bi-annual schedule, starting in April 2025.

“Osgoode has really been an industry leader in recognizing the importance of providing continuing education programs for non-legal practitioners,” Justice Libman says.

“We have lawyers, paralegals and all manner of different individuals joining our program,” he adds, noting that past attendees have included police officers, justices of the peace and others in jurisdictions across Canada whose work frequently touches on summary conviction offence cases.

Growing up in a family of lawyers – two of his brothers also entered the profession – Justice Libman always had an idea where his professional future would lie. However, he discovered his own calling in criminal law at a young age, tracing his interest back to his youth, observing perhaps the most influential defence lawyer of the entire 20^th Century: Perry Mason.

“I know they’ve remade the show, but the Raymond Burr version will always be better in my eyes,” Justice Libman says.

“I wanted to be a courtroom lawyer and that’s in fact what I did,” he says, albeit on the opposite side of the criminal law bar to his TV hero.

After articling with the Attorney General’s office, Justice Libman was called to the bar in 1982. He started out in the profession as a Crown attorney and later worked as a Crown counsel in a prosecutorial career that saw him argue both trials and appeals before all levels of court in Ontario, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. He was also designated as a certified specialist in criminal law by the Law Society of Ontario before his appointment to the bench of the Ontario Court of Justice in 1996.

Justice Libman has developed a reputation as an authority on the rules of court and regulatory offences, having authored several books on the subject, including Libman on Regulatory Offences in Canada, and Criminal Trial Rules in Provincial Courts in Canada.

Although he no longer argues cases, Justice Libman has found a way to approximate the thrill of a contested hearing through his work as an instructor, teaching criminal and business law courses at a variety of educational institutions, including Osgoode.

“Teaching in a classroom is very much like going to court, except that your cause is an educational one,” he says.

Justice Libman’s history with Osgoode goes back much further, having earned both an LLM and a PhD at the law school. He explains that the summary conviction program grew out of the Osgoode Certificate in Provincial Offences Court Practice, an existing course he developed more than a decade ago with OsgoodePD program lawyer Stéphane McRoberts.

“Stéphane deserves a lot of credit. We’re very proud that we can attract lawyers and non-lawyers who provide legal services all over Canada. That was our vision that we arrived at together,” Justice Libman says.

Offered via a combination of asynchronous learning and live sessions over five days, the summary offences certificate allows attendees to explore all the key stages of a summary conviction offence matter, with particular emphasis on their written and oral advocacy skills.

Justice Libman says the final module – consisting of live intensive advocacy workshops, with individualized feedback from defence lawyers, Crown Attorneys and judges – is always a highlight of the certificate program.

 “The morning typically focuses on the cross-examination of a police officer and in the afternoon, we move onto sentencing submissions before a judge or justice of the peace,” he says. “It’s always great to see how everyone has distilled what they have learned from the previous modules and give them an opportunity to put it into practice and get some really intensive feedback.”  

In recent years, the program has expanded its reach, transitioning smoothly from in-person delivery to interactive online learning.

“I very much enjoy being able to post links to cases or make comments to the group in the course of a presentations,” Justice Libman says. “It’s an adjustment we’ve made in court too, so I feel as though we have really kept up with the technology.”

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