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Upcoming A2J-Related Events

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SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANTS (SRL) AWARENESS DAY: (October 4th 2017) at Windsor Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Ottawa Law School, Queens Law School, and Western Law

  • SRL Awareness Day aims to increase awareness among law students of the self-represented litigant experience. Windsor Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Ottawa Law School, Queens Law School, and Western Law will host invited SRL guests in classes and during a midday panel.

For more information about SRL Awareness Day, visit the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) website here. Join the conversation taking place on social media for Self-Represented Litigants Awareness Day with #SRLawareness and #SRLawarenessday.

LEGAL INNOVATION ZONE: YOUTH ACCESS TO JUSTICE INITIATIVE at Ryerson University

  • Session 2A (youth only): October 4 at Ryerson University
    This event will focus on access to justice within the community and how to address access to justice issues.
  • Session 2B: October 25 at Ryerson University
    This event is open to all ages. Discussions will center on community access to justice issues and how those in the community can get help for their issues.
  • Session 3: October 30 at Ryerson University
    This session will explore where justice system users go for legal help and how existing resources can be made to work better.
  • Session 4 (Design Thinking): November 4 at Ryerson University
    Using themes explored in earlier sessions, this session will lead participants through the Design Thinking process to create prototypes for youth justice initiatives.

For more information on the Legal Innovation Zone Youth Access to Justice Initiative, visit their website here.

SASKATCHEWAN ACCESS TO JUSTICE WEEK (October 16 to 21) at the University of Saskatchewan, College of Law

  • This is the 2nd annual Saskatchewan Access to Justice week. This event seeks to engage individuals and stakeholders in access to justice discussions and to bring to the forefront various initiatives that are contributing to improvements in A2J for Saskatchewan residents.

For more information on Saskatchewan Access to Justice Week, visit their website here. Follow the week’s events and conversations on social media using #SKA2J.

ONTARIO ACCESS TO JUSTICE WEEK (October 23 to 27)

This is Ontario’s second annual Access to Justice Week. This year’s Access to Justice Week will include the following events:

  • Access to Justice Innovation (October 23) at the Law Society of Upper Canada
    This event will highlight innovative, community driven work taking place in the justice sector. The keynote presentation will be delivered by Justice Thomas A. Cromwell.
  • Improving Health, Improving Service (October 23) at the Law Society of Upper Canada
    This event will focus on mental health and other health risks that lawyers face.
  • The Millennial Influence (October 24) at the University of Ottawa
    This event will include discussions on the ways that millenials are influencing thinking on A2J and legal technology.
  • Paralegals and Access to Justice (October 25) at the Law Society of Upper Canada
    This session will centre on the contributions that paralegals are making to improving A2J.
  • Include. Inform. Inspire. (October 26) at the Law Society of Upper Canada
    This will be a public legal education and information forum.

For more information on Ontario’s Access to Justice Week, visit The Action Group on Access to Justice website here. Follow the week’s events and conversations on social media using #A2J2017.

2017 IT.CAN 21st  ANNUAL CONFERENCE (October 23 to 24) at 150 King Street West, Toronto

  • This 2-day conference will offer legal professionals and others an opportunity to network and learn about developments in technology law in Canada and abroad.

For more information about the IT.CAN Conference, visit the program page here.

ABA 2017 NATIONAL AGING AND LAW CONFERENCE (October 26 to 27) Silver Spring, Maryland

  • This 2-day conference will include an array of workshops on legal and policy issues, legal service delivery and recent developments related to elder rights, aging and law.

For additional information on the American Bar Association’s (ABA) 2017 National Aging and Law conference visit their website here.

2017 FAMILY DISPUTE RESOLUTION INSTITUTE OF ONTARIO (FDRIO) AND FAMILY MEDIATION CANADA (FMC) CONFERENCE (November 20 to 21) in Toronto, Ontario

The 2-day 2017 FDRIO-FMC Conference will include panels and workshops on a range of topics including:

  • How to Fix the Family Court Crisis
  • Getting Past Impasse
  • Distance Mediation and Technology
  • Effective Advocacy in Mediation
  • Elder Mediation
  • Parenting Coordination Challenges
  • Grandparent Access Mediation
  • Domestic Violence and Power Imbalance
  • Income Determination for Support Purposes
  • Ethical Issues in Mediation/Arbitration

For more information or to register for the FDRIO-FMC conference, visit the Family Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario website here.  Follow the conversation on social media with #FDRevolution.

SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGATION NETWORK (SRLN) 2018 CONFERENCE (February 22 to 23, 2018), San Francisco, California

  • The 2nd annual Self-Represented Litigation Network Conference will bring together a diverse group of players and users in the justice system to explore and create new tools for providing access to justice. Proposals for this conference will be accepted up to September 29.

For more information about Designing & Engaging the 100% Access to Civil Justice Ecosystem, the 2-day SRLN conference, visit their website here.

Final Report of the Bach Commission now Available

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The Bach Commission on Access to Justice was created in 2015 to develop “realistic but radical proposals…for re-establishing the right to justice as a fundamental public entitlement” in England and Wales. Recent changes in funding and eligibility requirements for legal aid have placed even more strain to a justice system that is said to be in crisis. In response to what the Commission argues are “widespread” and “varied” problems in the legal system, their final report proposes a legally enforceable Right to Justice Act that will ultimately serve to “create a new legal framework that will…transform access to justice”.

The Right to Justice, the final report of the Bach Commission is available online here.

The Crisis in the Justice System in England and Wales, the Commission’s interim report published in November, 2016 is available online here.

“Consumers 150: Consumer Engagement and Outreach” Workshop to take place on 18 September

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Studies show that a significant percentage of Canadian civil legal problems are consumer problems. “Mapping the Front End: Legal Information Seeking Practices” is a two-year project funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario Responsive Grants Program that studies consumers’ everyday information seeking practices.  In so doing the project aims to connect consumers seeking and using information with available and pertinent resourses by increasing consumer information literacy, awareness and empowerment. It is the first comprehensive study of its kind in Canada. As part of this project (and #Consumers150), there will be a “Consumer Engagement and Outreach” workshop held at the University of Ottawa on 18 September 2017. Information about this workshop can be found here.

 

 

 

New “Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada” Reports

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The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ) has published five new reports based on data from their Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada study. As part of this national study, over 3,000 people in Canada were surveyed about their attitudes towards and experiences with the justice system in Canada. Specifically, they were asked about their views on the Canadian justice system, the kinds of civil and family justice problems they experience, their methods of dealing with these problems, and the associated costs they incur to resolve them. The five new reports present survey data broken down according to the following respondent characteristics: “Age,” “Gender,” “Canadian Region,” “Education” and “Born in Canada”. The reports are published on the CFCJ’s “Cost of Justice” page and can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlinked titles below:

Age

Gender

Canadian Region

Education

Born in Canada

The Practice of Family Law in Canada: Results from a Survey of Participants at the 2016 National Family Law Program

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The Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family (CRILF) has published a new research paper based on findings from a survey of more than 200 lawyers and judges who attended the 2016 National Family Law Program. The National Family Law Program is a high-profile, 4-day biennial conference organized by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, that addresses current issues in the practice of family law in Canada. Topics addressed in the study include participants’ views of and experiences with: court-attached family justice programs; hearing the views of children; issues in custody and access disputes; issues in disputes about child support and spousal support; family violence; unified family courts; and, limited scope legal services in family law disputes.

The research paper was written by Lorne Bertrand, Jo Paetsch, John-Paul Boyd and Nick Bala and the study was funded by the Department of Justice and the Alberta Law Foundation.

The English version of the paper is available on the CRILF website here; the French version is available on the CRILF website here.

An Innovative Information Resource for Self-Represented Litigants and Others

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To better assist self-represented litigants and others navigate the overwhelming volume of legal information online, the Provincial Court of British Columbia has collaborated with Clicklaw to create one page summaries of some useful online resources in each of the Provincial Court’s major subject areas. Some of the resources that can be accessed online can be found through the following links:

• Where do I start for information on Family Court?
• Where do I start for information on Criminal Court?
• Where do I start for information on Small Claims Court?

These three pages can also be accessed here: bit.ly/clicklawbcpc.
Coordinator of Clicklaw, Audrey Jun has also created a Communications Toolkit.

Earlier this year, the Court also adopted Support Person Guidelines: http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/enews/enews-11-04-2017.

Polyamorous Relationships and Family Law in Canada

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As our collective understanding of what constitutes “family” continues to change and evolve, the legislation governing the formation and dissolution of family relationships may appear to be lingering behind. In a new paper prepared for the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family (CRILF), John-Paul E. Boyd explores both the legal components and general public perceptions surrounding polyamorous relationships in Canada. Boyd begins the paper by citing the preliminary findings from the CRILF’s 2016 study on Canadian perceptions of polyamory. After breaking down the data, Boyd moves on to discuss the legal dimensions of polyamorous relationships in the context of the various provincial family law schemes.

Finally, Boyd concludes the paper by posing some questions for members of the family bar to consider when thinking about polyamorous relationships and how they may affect a range of issues, such as:

  • a) Immigration: Can a married spouse sponsor someone coming into Canada to join his or her relationship?
    b) Public employment benefits: Can CPP benefits and employee health benefits be shared with more than 1 other person?
  • c) Wills and estates: To what extent does legislation accommodate concurrent surviving spouses? To what extent can children born from a ménage inherit from non-biological parents who die intestate?
  • d) Adoption and assisted reproduction: How many adults can be legal parents of a child?
  • e) Vital statistics: Can vital statistics agencies be compelled to register more adults as the parents of a child than the biological or adoptive parents of child?; and
  • f) Education and health care: To what extent can education and health care providers be compelled to take instructions from the members of a ménage other than child’s biological parents?

For a more fulsome discussion of the legal dimensions of polyamorous relationships and to see the preliminary results of the 2016 survey, take a look at the report.

Making A2J Matter to the Public

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The Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters launched the #justiceforall campaign designed to raise public understanding of accessible justice challenges as a component of a healthy democracy.

A next step in transforming the A2J landscape is to engage the public by raising awareness of the importance of justice issues in Canada.  Building a public understanding of the importance of legal health and the predictability of legal issues throughout one’s life will benefit individuals and will transform the access to justice conversation into an issue relevant to citizens, decision makers, and voters. As long as access to justice challenges are only understood within the justice system, the possible solutions will be limited to the scope of influence, resources and imagination of the justice system.

The Action Committee is asking the A2J leaders in Canada, to help raise the profile of A2J efforts. If you are a leader in A2J, a bencher, a legal academic, a judge or a lawyer with a personal following, we would also welcome your participation in collectively raising this issue. To participate in the social media campaign or add a button on your website, there are links, instructions and graphics available at: www.calibratesolutions.ca/actioncommitteecampaign

Starting a public conversation about access to justice will shift the perception of the issue to a holistic understanding of the law as a part of daily life that can be understood and managed throughout one’s life, often with the help of legal professionals.

This post also appears online here.

Intéresse le public de A2J

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Le Comité d’action sur l’accès à la justice en matière civile et familiale a commencé la campagne #justicepourtous vise à faire réaliser au public que l’accès à la justice est, en fait, l’accès aux solutions de leurs problèmes juridiques de tous les jours et un élément d’une saine démocratie.

L’étape suivante dans la transformation du paysage de l’accès à la justice est de mobiliser le public en sensibilisant les gens à l’importance des questions de justice au Canada. Sensibiliser le public à l’importance de la santé juridique et à la prévisibilité des problèmes juridiques au cours de leur vie profitera aux individus et permettra de transformer les discussions sur l’accès à la justice en une question concrète et pertinente pour les citoyens, les décideurs et les électeurs. Tant et aussi longtemps que les défis en matière d’accès à la justice sont seulement compris par le système de justice, les solutions possibles seront limitées au champ d’action, aux ressources et à l’imagination du système de justice.

Le Comité d’Action vous demande, comme un des A2J leaders au Canada, nous aider à faire connaître nos A2J efforts parmi le public. Si vous êtes un leader, un conseiller, un juge ou un avocat avec un personnel suivant, nous accueillerions aussi votre participation soulevant collectivement à cette question. À participer à la campagne de medias sociale ou mettre un bouton sur votre site nous avons des liens et le graphisme sont tout disponibles à: www.calibratesolutions.ca/actioncommitteecampaign

Lancer un dialogue public sur l’accès à la justice changera la perception du problème et amènera une compréhension plus globale de la loi comme étant un élément de la vie quotidienne qui peut être compris et géré tout au long de la vie d’une personne, souvent avec l’aide de professionnels de la justice.

Cet article a été publié pour la première fois ici.