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William Poulter (from left), 2, Thomas Abbott, 9, and Deanna McAulay, 4, rehearse for Halloween night fun during the downtown Stouffville BIA trick-orâ€"treating event Saturday. If you have a legal matter at York Region’s courthouse, you can expect to wait at least six months for a decision and miss as many as eight days of work for court appearances. Delays and backlogs an: slowing justice to a crawl, records from Ontan'o’s attorney general Show. To help alleviate the problem, the attomey zeneral’s office announced the Newmarket facil- Delays plaguing region’s court system BY 10E FANTAUZZI Staff Writer YOU'LL WAIT SIX MONTHS FOR A DECISION IN YORK REGION, MISS UP TO EIGHT DAYS OF WORK ity, which serves all of York Region, including Whitchurchâ€"Stoufl’ville, has been chosen as an “action site". along with courthouses in North York and Iondon. The provincial effort aims to move cases through the justice system faster by reducing unproductive criminal court delays and appear- ances by maldng more efiectjve use of justice system resources The province is targeting 30-perâ€"cent reducâ€" tions in average of days and court appearamm COMING SOON: TO YOUR FRONT OOOR needed to complete a case. It plans to meet the target within four years. York Region’s population gmwth, commuting population and its proximity to Toronto have led to delays at the Newmarket courthouse. Attorney General Chris Bentley admitted. Within four to five months, the province should have a fairly good idea of solutions to implement, he said. adding Ontario is deterâ€" mined to make its justice system more effective. Them were 29,732 charges mceivrxl at the www. stouffvi/Iepha rmasa ve. com Stouffville Pharmasave® ‘ 6601 Main St., ‘4 :w Stouffville, Ont. L4A-6A9 m 905-642-9595 Newmarket courts last year, requiring an average of 195 days and 8.5 appearances until a judg- ment, statistics indicate That compares to 2000, when 24,858 charges were received in Newmarket, requiring an aver- age of 176 days until dispmitjon and an average of 6.8 appearances before a judgment was made. While the average days to disposition and appearances [unlimd in Newmarket cages am up Home tour. ‘ Things to do Sports . . . . . Classified . . 8w CHARGES, STAFF PHOTOS/BILL ROBERTS mg 905-640â€"4646 6312 Main St Sfoufl'vme 14 16 18