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Paths to Justice and the Resolution of Consumer Problems: Findings from the 2014 Everyday Legal Problems and the Costs of Civil Justice in Canada National Survey

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Are there identifiable patterns in the ways that Canadians of different ethnicities respond to consumer problems? This is the primary question guiding Paths to Justice and the Resolution of Consumer Problems, a Canadian Forum on Civil Justice Cost of Justice Project report by Dr. Les Jacobs, David Kryszajtys & Matthew McManus.

This paper explores consumer problems and commonalities in paths to resolution based on ethnicity, income and education, using data gathered from the CFCJ’s 2014 Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada survey. Read Paths to Justice and the Resolution of Consumer Problems: Findings from the 2014 Everyday Legal Problems and the Costs of Civil Justice in Canada National Survey in full in full here.

TAG 2015 Activity Report

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The Action Group on Access to Justice (TAG) works with political, institutional and community stakeholders to mobilize solutions to access to justice problems in Ontario.

TAG recently released a report of the projects and initiatives that they carried out in 2015 that were aimed at improving access to justice in Ontario. The TAG 2015 Activity Report is available here.
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Le Groupe d’action sur l’accès à la justice (TAG) est une organisation qui travaille avec des intervenants politiques, institutionnels et locals pour trouver des solutions aux obstacles  à l’accès à la justice en Ontario.

Récemment, TAG a publié un rapport qui souligne touts leurs projets et initiatives de 2015 concernant l’accès à la justice en Ontario. Pour lire le rapport d’activités de 2015 de TAG, cliquez ici.

Eligibility, Legal Aid and Access to Justice

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A recent article published on CBC News Canada states that “an ‘average’ 5-day civil trial cost $56k last year, beyond the reach of most average people”

Though provinces across Canada fund legal aid, the maximum yearly income that qualifies most Canadians for legal aid is so low that it excludes many who are in need of help.

In Middle-class injustice: Too wealthy for legal aid, too pinched for ‘average’ lawyers’ fees, Laura Fraser discusses legal aid, access to justice and the Canadian justice system. Read the article in full here.

“Sense of Access to Justice” as a Framework for Civil Procedure Justice Reform: An Empirical Assessment of Judicial Settlement Conferences in Quebec (Canada)

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This paper discusses Quebec’s efforts to “renew its legal culture towards a participatory justice, rooted in fair-minded processes that encourage the persons involved to play an active role”. Roberge et al use empirical evidence to explore litigant’s “Sense of Access to Justice” (“SAJ”) in settlement conferences conducted by Quebec trial court judges operating under a “facilitative integrative problem-solving approach”.

Jean-François Roberge’s paper, “Sense of Access to Justice” as a Framework for Civil Procedure Justice Reform: An Empirical Assessment of Judicial Settlement Conferences in Quebec (Canada) is available in full here: http://bit.ly/Roberge-SenseOfA2J

Study on Legal Problems of Renters (UK)

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There is a new study from the UK entitled: “Understanding the Legal Problems of Renters”.  This report by Pascoe Pleasence, Nigel Balmer and Catrina Devnir is available here: http://www.thelegaleducationfoundation.org/report/understanding-the-legal-problems-of-renters . It is part of a broader study on “How People Understand and Interact with the Law”.

The webpage highlights the following key findings of the study:

  • The latest figures show that over a third of all households in England and Wales were rented, which makes the ability of renters to resolve housing-related legal problems a major issue for society.
  • Few renters realized that their housing difficulty was a legal problem, nearly half (47 per cent) put it down to bad luck.
  • The renters most likely to experience housing-related legal problems are the young, single parents, and unmarried couples with children.
  • Legal problems with rented housing take a long time to resolve: half lasted more than a year; a quarter were still unresolved after two years.
  • Renters are more likely than those living in other types of accommodation to have higher levels of non-housing-related legal problems – such as with domestic violence, divorce, welfare benefits and personal injury.
  • Those renting privately (rather than in the public sector) were the most likely to have non-housing-related legal problems; the least likely were those who owned their homes outright.

It is noted on the webpage that “people living in rented accommodation are twice as likely to experience some kinds of non-housing-related legal problems as those living in other types of housing”.

Additional research and reports by the Legal Education Foundation are available here: http://www.thelegaleducationfoundation.org/research.

New report from the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family: “Access to Legal Services in Women’s Shelters”

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Access to Legal Services in Women’s Shelters examines access to legal services among clients of women’s domestic violence shelters. The study samples the views of staff and clients at three domestic violence shelters with the goals of improving understanding of clients’ legal service needs, understanding the challenges clients attempting to access legal services encounter and making recommendations for improvement.

The authors, Alysia Wright, Coordinator of Alberta-based Research Projects at The Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family and Lorne Bertrand PhD, Senior Research Associate at The Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family conclude that clients’ service needs are complex and often involve legal problems, yet shelters face specific organizational barriers to coordinating legal services. The authors recommend that a further Alberta-wide study be undertaken to examine the legal access patterns of women experiencing domestic violence, to assess the prevalence of the barriers identified in the study and to determine whether further barriers are present in other shelters.

The report is available for download in PDF format from the publications page of The Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family website: http://www.crilf.ca/publications.htm.

Access to Justice Research Report on Intimate Partner Violence in Family and Criminal Cases

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Dr. Margaret Jackson, Director of the FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, and The Honourable Donna J. Martinson, Q.C., LL.M., have released an access to justice report entitled: Risk of Future Harm: Family Violence and Information Sharing Between Family and Criminal Courts.

This report is grounded in their exploratory, qualitative study that deals with both family law and criminal law cases in which intimate partner violence (family violence) is an issue. The research focused primarily on violence against women and children.

Read the final report by The Honourable Donna Martinson, Q.C. and Dr. Margaret Jackson here: http://www.fredacentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Observatory-Martinson-Jackson-Risk-Report-FINAL-January-14-2016.pdf

Dr. Jackson and The Honourable Donna Martinson presented their research at B.C.’s Fifth Justice Summit (held in November 2015). The Report on the Fifth Summit will be released soon. The report on the Fourth Summit, entitled Better Responses to Violence against Women, is available here: http://www.justicebc.ca/shared/pdfs/FourthSummitReport.pdf

Introducing the Forum québécois sur l’accès à la justice civile et familiale

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The newly launched Forum québécois sur l’accès à la justice civile et familiale was created in the wake of the publication of Supreme Court Justice of Canada, Thomas Cromwell’s, and the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters’ report: http://www.cfcj-fcjc.org/sites/default/files/docs/2013/AC_Report_English_Final.pdf

The Forum is comprised of some twenty justice stakeholders and is presided over by Quebec’s Chief Justice, Élizabeth Corte. Together the members of the Forum are taking concrete steps to improve access to justice in civil and family matters. Visit the Forum québécois sur l’accès à la justice civile et familiale website here: http://nouvelleculturejudiciaire.quebec/fr/a-propos/ and read about the Forum’s structure, mandate, background and guiding principles from their Terms of Reference document (available in English).

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Le Forum québécois sur l’accès à la justice civile et familiale a été créé dans la foulée de la publication du rapport du juge Thomas Cromwell de la Cour suprême du Canada sur l’accès à la justice en matière civile et familiale: http://www.cfcj-fcjc.org/sites/default/files/docs/2013/AC_Report_French_Final.pdf

Le Forum est composé d’une vingtaine d’acteurs du milieu de la justice et il est présidé par Élizabeth Corte, juge en chef de la Cour du Québec. Ensemble, les membres du Forum définissent des actions concrètes pour améliorer l’accès à la justice en matière civile et
familiale.

Pour plus d’information: http://nouvelleculturejudiciaire.quebec/fr/

Access to Justice: Personal Reflections

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The Honourable Warren K. Winkler, O.Ont., Q.C., B.A., LL.B, LL.M., LL.D. (Hon.), the former Chief Justice of Ontario, is recognized as one of Canada’s leading mediators. He recently gave a speech at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law on several key A2J issues. The speech was entitled, “”Access to Justice: Personal Reflections” and can be viewed online here: http://bit.ly/SilasHalyk-WWinkler and is available in pdf format here: http://bit.ly/A2J-PersonalReflections-WWinkler

Selected Annotated Bibliography

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As part of the Cost of Justice project, The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice recently published a Selected Annotated Bibliography of some of the major national and regional legal needs surveys from 1990 to present.

This bibliography is a great resource for anyone hoping to expand their understanding of legal needs and everyday justiciable problems. To view the Selected Annotated Bibliography, visit: http://bit.ly/CFCJ-CoJBibliography