An Interview with Kim Maraj, Supervisor of Court Operations, 311 Jarvis St. Family Court

by Montana Schott, summer intern

(As part of her summer co-op with Toronto Family Mediation Services /mediate393, Montana reached out to some of our court partners to learn more about their work. She met with Kim Maraj, Supervisor of Court Operations (SCO) at the Ontario Court of Justice, 311 Jarvis St.)

My wide-ranging interview with Kim Maraj covered court, COVID, challenges, and changes. Kim shared that in her role of SCO she does a little bit of everything, joking that even if a lightbulb burns out, that’s her responsibility since she manages the facility, health and safety, accessibility, stakeholders, judiciary, and supervises 30 administrative staff members within.

Kim is also the interviewer and trainer of all new administrative staff. With 25 years of experience in the courts and seven years in her role as supervisor she has an expert intuition for what people don’t explicitly state about themselves. Kim takes it upon herself to identify and work with each employee’s individual strengths. Kim feels that she is only successful when her staff is successful and says that being able to make a difference in an employee’s life makes a difference to her.

Kim is motivated to share her experience in the courts with her staff, to help them develop their own path. She puts the upmost importance on the wellbeing of her staff. Next most important for her is a well-organized court schedule. The trial coordinator, who works directly with the judiciary, reports to her to ensure all scheduling is done correctly. With so many areas to attend to, Kim says being able to prioritize is one of the most important skills for the role and she is constantly assessing what the most pressing order of business is.

Being that Kim has worked within the court system for many years I was interested in the changes she has seen throughout that time. Her mind was immediately drawn to COVID-19 because of the swift and drastic nature of its impact. It prompted many necessary changes, like having justice services online so people no longer need to file in person. This led to reduced counter hours which, combined with online filing has led to greatly reduced court house line ups. Kim sometimes finds that she misses the bustle of the pre-COVID days when everyone would be in person. She is still managing the same number of staff as before, as the demand still exists on a primarily online platform and the same questions still need to be answered— but by email.

Many of these changes were born of necessity and prevailed due to convenience, but I was curious what innovation someone like Kim would like to see within our justice system. Kim thinks that one innovation that would benefit the public would be public terminals for online filing. She noted that there would be challenges when it comes to computer literacy and accessibility, especially for those in marginalized communities, that would need to be considered.

When asked what she sees as the most hopeful recent development Kim identified the Courts Digital Transformation (CDT). All the court business lines of criminal, family, civil and small claims are going to be on one system which is a huge step in modernization when we consider that some systems have been in use for over 30 years. It can already be challenging for the public to maneuver through the court system and know who they should contact, and currently each court uses its own case management system. When the intended CDT changes are implemented, it will create one universal place for the public to go, creating a more user-friendly service. Kim hopes that this kind of improvement will help the public reach the right resource more easily and might also result in fewer people reaching out to her to pay their parking ticket!

When asked about her source of inspiration, Kim noted the province’s secretary of cabinet, Michelle DiEmanuel. Kim admires that even though there are 4000 managers for Michelle to meet up with, she sets aside the time to meet each of them, providing support, encouragement and feedback that resonates.

I left my interview with Kim feeling a level of inspiration myself because it reaffirmed that there are leaders out there who are seeing the potential and strengths of their employees. Kim Maraj clearly loves her role and our conversation highlighted to me the many benefits that a good leader will bring to the workplace.