How can legal services and justice systems be designed around the people who use them?
Several sessions at the Advancing People-Centred Justice in Canada conference examined how legal design, digital tools, and artificial intelligence can improve access to justice. They also considered the importance of ensuring that innovation is guided by people’s needs, experiences, and rights.
The following resources offer practical examples and approaches to designing legal information, services, and systems that are more accessible and responsive.
Designing Accessible Legal Tools
Community Legal Education Ontario’s free Guided Pathways provide step-by-step support to help people complete legal forms and navigate processes involving family law, housing, human rights, immigration, income assistance, small claims, and other areas. The tools ask users questions and use their responses to generate tailored legal information and documents.
Building Systems That Learn and Adapt
The University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for Research, Evaluation, and Action Towards Equal Justice brings together research, evaluation, and action aimed at making justice more accessible. Its work includes testing design methods, developing collaborative and community-engaged approaches, and advancing justice data, measurement, and program evaluation.
Artificial Intelligence and Administrative Justice
Artificial Intelligence Monitor for Immigration in Canada and Internationally
The Artificial Intelligence Monitor for Immigration in Canada and Internationally researches and monitors governments’ use of artificial intelligence in immigration and administrative decision-making. Its work focuses on transparency, accountability, human rights, and the effects of automated systems on migrant communities.
Keeping Innovation People-Centred
What Is People-Centered Justice?
This World Justice Project resource explains how people-centred justice begins with understanding people’s legal needs, the ways they try to resolve their problems, and the obstacles they encounter. It considers how data, prevention, legal information, accessible services, and collaboration across sectors can help justice systems respond more effectively.
Watch the Conference Sessions
The related conference sessions are also available online:
- Making Knowledge Usable: Language, Literacy, and Legitimacy in Justice
- Workshop: The Architecture of Change: Building Systems that Learn and Adapt
- Co-Designing Justice: Participation as a Design Method
- Beyond the Algorithm: People-Centred Design in an AI Age
This is the third in AJRN’s September series sharing resources connected to the 2026 Advancing People-Centred Justice in Canada conference.
See you next week for the final two!
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