Ralph Ivan Doncaster, prolific litigator, fails in latest court case

A decision released today by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia offers an interesting glimpse into the thinking of one of the province’s most persistent litigants.

Ralph Ivan Doncaster is involved in — in the words of Justice Jamie Campbell — well more than 100 court cases. In most of them, Doncaster represents himself.

In this latest action, Doncaster was asking Campbell to recuse himself from the case, because he’d decided against Doncaster in previous matters.

Campbell refused Doncaster’s request to remove himself from the file. The judge pointed out that Doncaster has made similar requests involving at least six other judges at various levels of the court.

"Judges have a duty to the system to do their jobs,” Campbell wrote in his decision.

“Granting such motions as a matter of course allows a party to engage in judge shopping while succeeding in grinding out the litigation and expense for the other parties involved.”

The judge also noted that other judges would probably not be eager to take on this case because it involves Doncaster’s divorce from his former wife Jennifer Field and the protracted litigation has been acrimonious.

Campbell noted that far from being biased against Doncaster in previous hearings, he was at pains to accommodate the man who usually represents himself.

'I don’t have the common sense...'

Campbell ran into difficulty when he tried to sentence Doncaster in a previous hearing. One of the sentencing provisions — which is fairly standard when a person is not being kept in custody — is the order that he “keep the peace and be of good behaviour.” Campbell described that provision as “common sense”.

Doncaster replied in court: “I don’t have the common sense that everybody else talks about.”

“You’re expecting me to know what common sense is when genetically I don’t have all the same common sense that a neurotypical does,” Doncaster added.

He has Aspergers and has said that condition explains some of his behaviour both inside and outside court.

“I’m supposed to have common sense,” Doncaster said in an exchange with Campbell, which the judge included in his latest decision. “Yet my mental disability is that some of the things you consider common sense I just don’t have.”

Campbell then went on to describe at length to Doncaster what was meant by “keep the peace and be of good behaviour." At the end of the exchange, Doncaster agreed to sign the court order.

In dismissing Doncaster’s request, Justice Campbell wrote:

“Judges have a duty to hear the cases assigned to them and should not hastily recuse themselves to avoid dealing with the issue, or because it’s more convenient.

"Unfavourable comments by a trial judge do not necessarily indicate a reasonable apprehension of bias. Merely deciding a case against a part is not enough. The presumption of judicial impartiality remains.”

Doncaster’s next appearance on yet another matter is scheduled for this Wednesday in Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.