Matt Maurer has a very brief post here on courtroom innovations to help SRLs, and questions what’s being done in the Toronto area.
Month April 2015
Using Social Innovation: Learning through our Family Justice & Mental Health Social Lab
The Winkler Institute blog has a post by Nicole Aylwin on the first Family Justice and Mental Health Social Lab in Ontario.
Online Dispute Resolution is Not Science Fiction, Says Advisory Group
Here is an article from the National Law Review (UK), discussing the recent report of the ODR Advisory Group of the Civil Justice Council.
Government to Play Bigger Role in Criminal Legal Aid
In Singapore, the government has announced that it will play a bigger role in criminal legal aid funding.
Ontario Joins Wider Move Toward Online Dispute Resolution to Ease Court Burdens
Michael Erdle has this post situating Ontario’s expanding use of ODR in a broader context.
Cash for Justice? Sounds Like a Scandal
In the aftermath of the Vilardell/TLABC decisions in Canada, those interested in court fees and access to justice may be interested in current trends in the UK. There are a few articles on rising court fees in the UK, including this one in The Telegraph, this one in Global Legal Post, and this article in the South Wales Evening Post.
Kenya: Access to Justice and the Constitution – Part 1
Civil Legal Aid Cuts “Failed to Target Help Where Needed”
The House of Commons Justice Committee in the UK recently released its report on the impact of civil legal aid reform on access to justice and here is a response from the UK Law Centres Network.
Legal Aid Reforms ‘Risk Serious Miscarriages of Justice’
For those following the legal aid reforms debate in the UK, another article from the BBC that looks at the ramifications of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act which took many civil cases out of the scope of legal aid in April 2013.
Access to Justice for Children: A B.C. Continuing Legal Education Society Conference
**Repost from Canadian Legal Ethics listserv**
An exciting two day B.C. Continuing Legal Education Society conference called Access to Justice for Children will take place in Vancouver, at the Pan Pacific Hotel, on May 14-15, 2015.
From the conference description:
The Canadian legal profession is engaged in critically important discussions about access to justice. Ensuring access to justice for children must be a key component of those discussions. Children in Canada have broad legal entitlements under domestic and international law, including significant participatory rights, which have the potential to shape their everyday lives in positive ways and to protect them when they become involved in court, alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or administrative processes […] All lawyers have obligations to prepare, with the participation of children, Child Rights Impact Statements for all legislative and policy decision making.
The conference agenda can be found here.
Keynote speakers include:
- Senator Raynell Andreychuk, a former lawyer, judge and diplomat and chaired the Senate Standing Human Rights Committee that produced the report Children: the Silenced Citizens on Canada’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and
- Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, a B.C.’s Children’s Representative and a passionate advocate for children and for effective legal representation for them.
Other out of province speakers who are committed to advancing children’s rights include:
- Lucy McSweeney, the Children’s Lawyer for Ontario,
- Christian Whalen, Chair of the CBA National Children’s Law Committee, and
- Lisa Wolff, UNICEF Canada.
Judge Marion Buller and Judge Rose Raven from the B.C. Provincial Court and Justice Margot Fleming from B.C. Supreme Court) also bring their considerable knowledge and keen interest in justice for children to our access to justice discussions.
ajrn.org 