Following the integration of restorative procedures into the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission in 2012 – a first for a Canadian province- six adjudication decisions have been reached using restorative procedures. These procedures have carved a promising path forward for access to justice in the province by helping to reduce reliance on lawyers and technical procedures and offering an alternative for quick, fair, proportional and cost-effective adjudications.

With investigation time reduced 83% (from three years to six months) and hearings reduced by more than 80% (from five days to one day), these results point to an option that may be more collaborative, more meaningful and, as one adjudicator wrote, “as efficient and as cost effect…[tive] as possible.”

For more information read, A Restorative Adjudication Process Shows Promise by Lisa Teryl, available here.