Month October 2023

Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Announces Launch of Innovation Sandbox Pilot Project

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Following approval at a November 2022 Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Council meeting, the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society officially launched the Innovation Sandbox Pilot Project on October 24, 2023. The goal of the Innovation Sandbox Pilot Project is to foster “creative and novel solutions to access to justice issues across Nova Scotia”.

By removing regulatory barriers that would otherwise delimit participant law firms from engaging in certain projects, the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society seeks to provide a space for the development of new kinds of legal service delivery that will improve access to justice in the province. Initiatives undertaken through the Innovation Sandbox Pilot Project can focus on embracing new technologies, business models, or funding structures beyond the parameters of industry norms.

At present, the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society is working with three participants as a pilot, with a view to putting in place a structure to monitor and accept applications from more firms.

To learn more about the Innovation Sandbox Pilot Project and how it could help improve access to justice in Nova Scotia, please visit: https://nsbs.org/society-news/a2j-week-innovation-sandbox-aims-to-improve-access-to-justice/.

Information for this post was gleaned from: https://nsbs.org/society-news/a2j-week-innovation-sandbox-aims-to-improve-access-to-justice/.

Healthcare Based Housing Initiative Set to Launch at Toronto’s University Hospital Network

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According to a 2021 Statistics Canada report, more than 235,000 people in Canada experience homelessness in a given year. Research from the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ) confirms connections between everyday legal problems and costs to the basic security of individuals in terms of loss of employment and loss of housing. Research further shows that factors such as access to safe, good quality housing can have significant impacts on the health of individuals and populations.

Social determinants of health – the understanding that housing, income, and food security are critical components of a health society – are central to a new initiative by Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN). UHN is now close to completing Toronto’s first community of supportive housing units, which includes more than 50 units. UHN clinicians will be able to prescribe housing to patients who do not have housing or who are in unstable living situations, with the potential that patients may live in one of these units. UHN also aims to provide residents with access to community support workers. Rent payments for residents were determined considering that many may be Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipients or otherwise have a limited income.

Information about this initiative was gleaned from “This Ontario hospital network is prescribing housing to patients-and building homes on its property” by Kevin Smith, published in Maclean’s Magazine (October 10, 2023): https://macleans.ca/society/health/prescriptive-housing-uhn/.

To learn more about social adversity and everyday legal problems, see Social and Economic Adversity Experienced by Canadians and Everyday Legal Problems by Ab Currie and Lisa Moore: https://cfcj-fcjc.org/wp-content/uploads/Social-and-Economic-Adversity-Experienced-by-Canadians-and-Everyday-Legal-Problems-Ab-Currie-Lisa-Moore.pdf.

To learn more about multidisciplinary legal problem resolution, see Crossing Boundaries: Exploring Multi-Disciplinary Models for Legal Problem Resolution by Lisa Moore: https://cfcj-fcjc.org/wp-content/uploads/Crossing-Boundaries-Exploring-Multi-Disciplinary-Models-for-Legal-Problem-Resolution-by-Lisa-Moore.pdf.

Ground-breaking U.S.-Based Research Compares SRL Experiences in Civil Proceedings Online and In-Person

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New research from an interdisciplinary team from Indiana’s Coalition for Court Access provides insights into the experiences of self-represented litigants (SRLs) in-person relative to experiences online. It is among the first studies in the U.S. to gather empirical evidence on the impact of remote technologies on vulnerable and self-represented individuals in civil proceedings. This research comes at a time when many courts are deciding whether to continue to use remote technologies introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic or return fully to in-person proceedings. The research uses a people-centered approach to highlight litigant’s views on this question.

The final report discusses self-represented individuals’ experiences and views on remote hearings vs. in-person proceedings in several areas: (i) Preferences; (ii) Procedural Justice; (iii) Distributive Justice; (iv) Structural Affordances and Barriers; (v) Technological Affordances and Barriers; and (vi) Social Psychological Affordances and Barriers.

A significant percentage of self-represented litigants in the study agree that online civil courts enhance access to justice for individuals without legal representation, particularly for parties navigating high-volume civil dockets. A large percentage of self-represented litigants indicated that they would like to be able to access court remotely in the future. Among study participants, remote proceedings were largely viewed positively, improved individuals’ experiences of procedural justice and outcome satisfaction, and “provided notable conveniences, and decreased the stress of attending court in person”.

The final report, Accessing Justice with Zoom: Experiences and Outcomes in Online Civil Courts by Victor D. Quintanilla, Kurt Hugenberg, Ryan Hutchings & Nedim Yel is available online here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xfb052SVZRTIwv8-03xQyX9UzFjcvcul/view.