Ontario Law Society Seeking Feedback on Paralegal Service Expansion

March 3, 2025March 1, 2025ajrn1 Leave a comment

A recent report by the Law Society of Ontario’s Paralegal Standing Committee outlines proposed changes aimed at increasing access to justice options for appeals and judicial review.

The main change involves expanding the paralegal scope of activities to include certain appeals and judicial reviews before the Divisional Court. According to the report, if the Law Society were to adopt a change to the paralegal scope of activities, it would also need to create a training program on the expanded duties, which would be required for paralegals before they could represent clients before the Divisional Court.

The Law Society is seeking feedback on the proposed expansion of scope of activities, including what the scope of activities should include, as well other comments on the proposal. The Law Society of Ontario’s Increasing Access to Justice Options for Appeals and Judicial Reviews: Consultation Report, authored by The Paralegal Standing Committee of the Law Society of Ontario is available in English here: https://lawsocietyontario-dwd0dscmayfwh7bj.a01.azurefd.net/media/lso/media/about/convocation/2025/convocation-february-2025-paralegal-standing-committee-report.pdf.

Augmenter les options d’accès à la justice pour les appels et les révisions judiciaires : Rapport de consultation est disponible en français ici : https://lawsocietyontario-dwd0dscmayfwh7bj.a01.azurefd.net/media/lso/media/about/convocation/2025/convocation-february-2025-paralegal-standing-committee-report-fr.pdf.

Feedback will be gathered until 30 May 2025. To access the consultation form, or for more information in English, please visit the Law Society of Ontario website here: https://lso.ca/about-lso/initiatives/increasing-access-to-justice-options-for-appeals-a. For the French form, please visit: https://lso.ca/a-propos-du-barreau/initiatives/augmenter-les-options-d%E2%80%99acces-a-la-justice-pour-les-appels-et-les-revisions-judiciaires.

Justice Canada Publishes Black Justice Strategy Implementation Plan

February 26, 2025March 11, 2025ajrn1 Leave a comment

Canada’s Department of Justice has announced the release of Canada’s Black Justice Strategy Implementation Plan. The Plan, entitled Toward Transformative Change: an Implementation Plan for Canada’s Black Justice Strategy, creates a 10-year timeline to address the over-representation of Black people in Canada’s justice system caused by systemic inequalities. Proposed funding investments to support Canada’s first ever Black Justice Strategy would be spread across nine departments and agencies. Proposed investments of $23.6 million over two years would support the following Department of Justice Canada activities, beginning in the 2025-26 fiscal year:

Develop Black-specific court worker/navigation services
Expand the use of Impact of Race and Culture Assessment reports at decision points in the criminal justice system other than sentencing
Develop supports for Black victims and survivors of crime
Extend the External Steering Group to provide expert advice on implementing the Black Justice Strategy
Develop Black-specific diversion, conferencing, and bail supervision projects for youth

Toward Transformative Change: an Implementation Plan for Canada’s Black Justice Strategy, released by the Department of Justice Canada is available online in English here: https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/cbjs-scjn/ttc-ect/index.html.

Étapes pour un changement transformateur : Plan de mise en œuvre de la Stratégie canadienne en matière de justice pour les personnes noires est disponible en français ici : https://www.justice.gc.ca/fra/jp-cj/scjn-cbjs/ect-ttc/index.html.

Information for this post was gleaned from the Department of Justice Canada’s news release on Canada’s Black Justice Strategy’s Implementation Plan, available in full here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2025/02/release-of-canadas-black-justice-strategys-implementation-plan-an-important-step-toward-transformational-change-in-the-criminal-justice-system-in-c.html.

New Book Explores Legal Innovation through Conversations on Technology, the Legal Profession, and Societal Change

February 26, 2025February 26, 2025ajrn1 Leave a comment

A recently published, open access book from publisher, Cambridge University Press explores legal innovation, its impacts, challenges, and opportunities through conversations focusing on technology, the legal profession and societal change. The book includes contributions from world-leading experts. Some topics covered by the book include:

Dispute Resolution Transformed by Technology
Corporate Governance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Innovation in Financial Services and Supervision
Artificial Intelligence and Legal Services
Whether Digitalisation Will Help the Five Billion People Without Meaningful Access to Justice

Legal Innovation: Conversations about Technology, the Legal Profession and Societal Change, edited by Felix Steffek and Mihoko Sumida is available online here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/legal-innovation/8EBED6F418ED6BAFACAAF08DA2E4F173.

Policy Brief Explains Relevance of ‘People-centred’ Indicator of Access to Justice for UN SDG 16

February 26, 2025February 26, 2025ajrn1 1 Comment

A UNDP policy brief published in February examines the importance of measuring and advancing ‘people-centred’ access to justice. The focus of the brief is the indicator for UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.3.3: the “proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism”.

The brief provides insights on how SDG 16.3.3 data can be used to increase access to civil justice.

The policy brief highlights the reliance of SDG 16.3.3 on the following concepts and measures:

People-centred experiences, measuring the experience of legal problems from the perspective of those who face them rather than the needs and views of service providers. Disaggregation by individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics (such as age, sex, migratory background, etc.) and geographical variables allows for the identification of vulnerable groups/areas.
In-depth assessment of how people address the problems they face, both inside and outside of formal institutions or mechanisms. SDG Indicator 16.3.3. provides a mechanism to monitor public policies that enhance the functioning of formal or informal dispute resolution mechanisms (top-down policies) as well as those that empower the population (bottom-up policies).
Insights from household surveys across the world by surveying a representative sample of the population rather than relying on administrative data. The survey questions can provide actionable data insights on 16.3.3 and can be integrated into ongoing national surveys as an additional module on access to justice.
Cross-country comparisons on access to justice, while also allowing for country-specific dispute resolution mechanisms and reasons for not using them.

The policy brief, “From Data to Action Strengthening Civil Justice with SDG 16.3.3” is available in English here: https://www.undp.org/publications/data-action-strengthening-civil-justice-sdg-1633.

Access to Justice Week BC Takes Place February 3-7, 2025

January 29, 2025January 29, 2025ajrn1 Leave a comment

This year, Access to Justice Week BC will take place from February 3-7, 2025. Law students, legal professionals, law professors and others have organized and are participating in sessions under the Week’s theme “What does the future of access to justice look like?”

Sessions will take place in-person, online, or in a hybrid format. Sessions taking place as part of Access to Justice Week BC 2025 include:

Monday, February 3, 2025:
Reimagining Justice through User-Centred Principles
Speakers:
Zach Zarnow, Deputy Managing Director, National Center for State Courts
Dr. Andrew Pilliar, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University
Angie Still, Virtual Client Navigator, BC First Nations Justice Council
Moderator: Sarah McCoubrey, Director of IJC Transformation, BC First Nations Justice Council

Tuesday, February 4, 2025:
Access to Justice for Victims of Economic Abuse
Speakers:
Dr. McKay White, Associate Professor, Department of International Business, Marketing, Strategy & Law, MacEwan University

Wednesday, February 5, 2025:
Access to Justice in the AI Era: Risk vs. Innovation
Speakers:
Professor Amy Salyzyn, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa
Michael Litchfield, Director, Faculty of Law, Artificial Intelligence Risk and Regulation Lab & the Business Law Clinic, University of Victoria | Associate Director, BC Access to Justice Centre for Excellence
Moderator: Tina Parbhakar, Strategic Coordinator, Access to Justice BC

Thursday, February 6, 2025:
A2J Data Working Lunch

Bridging the Justice Gap: Hackathons as Catalysts for Change
Speakers:
Brandon Hastings, Lawyer & Mediator
Dr. Megan Ma, Associate Director, CodeX and Law, Science, Technology Program, Stanford Law School
Amy A. Emerson, Assistant Dean for Library and Information Services & Professor of Law, Villanova University
Insiya Jamal, Project Manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s Responsible Computer Challenge and Senior Associate at the King’s College of the University of Cambridge
Zarja Hude, Senior Associate, King’s College, University of Cambridg
Moderator: Hayley Woodin Hastings, Editor-in-Chief, Business in Vancouver (BIV)

Friday, February 7, 2025:
Access to Justice and Fair Proceedings: The Fundamental Conflict Between an Inherently Complex Justice System and Self-Representation
Speakers:
Professor Nikos Harris KC, Faculty of Law, UBC Allard Law School
Other speakers will be announced shortly.

Additional details about sessions taking place during Access to Justice Week BC and information on how to register for sessions are available here: https://accesstojusticebc.ca/a2jweekbc/.

New U.S.-based Report Provides Framework for Achieving Civil Justice

December 4, 2024December 4, 2024ajrn1 Leave a comment

The final report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Making Justice Accessible project discusses the civil justice gap, current successes in the civil justice field, and a framework for securing civil justice for all Americans. The “Achieving Civil Justice: A Framework for Collaboration” report explores the potential of a “pluralistic and pragmatic” approach to civil justice. The report underscores the importance of programs and efforts that allow for listening and learning from underserved populations, providing legal help where people already are, leveraging innovative technology to make access easier, training to better support people with legal needs, and partnership-building with a view to expanding funding, resources, and innovation in the field.

The report identifies four ways to help improve access to civil justice:

Organize civil justice efforts around the people seeking civil legal help
Coordinate, connect, and participate with others working at the local, state, and national level to share best practices, scholarship, and emerging strategies
Apply an evidence-based approach
Make adjustments as projects evolve

The Academy of Arts & Sciences’ “Achieving Civil Justice: A Framework for Collaboration” report is available online here: https://www.amacad.org/publication/achieving-civil-justice.

Content for this post was gleaned from the final Achieving Civil Justice: A Framework for Collaboration report.

New Report Calls for Urgent Reforms at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board

November 25, 2024November 25, 2024ajrn1 Leave a comment

A recently published report by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) calls for urgent changes to address significant delays and inefficiencies at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). The report notes that, while Ontario is taking steps to improve operations at the LTB, action is urgently needed to address backlogs and rebuild confidence in Toronto’s rental market.

According to an Ombudsman Ontario investigation, there are more than 53,000 unresolved cases at the LTB. The following are among the ten recommendations the TRREB outlines in the report to improve efficiency and accessibility at the LTB:

Reinstate in-person hearings
Create a special backlog reduction team focused on addressing older and urgent cases
Streamline the appointments process to ensure that qualified, experienced adjudicators remain in their positions
Strengthen technological infrastructure
Enforce stricter timelines
Adopt better screening processes to prevent unfair or unnecessary termination of applications

The news release for the TRREB’s “Breaking the Backlog: Restoring Fairness and Justice to Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board” report is available here: https://trreb.ca/trreb-releases-report-breaking-the-backlog-restoring-fairness-and-justice-to-ontarios-landlord-and-tenant-board/. The report is available in full here: https://trreb.ca/hlfiles/pdf/TRREB-Breaking_the_Backlog.pdf.

Alberta Seeking Feedback to Improve Access to Family Justice Services

November 25, 2024November 25, 2024ajrn1 Leave a comment

The Government of Alberta has launched a survey aimed at gathering feedback from Albertans on how the province’s family justice services can better support their needs. According to a Government of Alberta new release about the public survey, Alberta’s government is “committed to supporting Alberta families, improving access to justice and investing in the family justice system…[including] expanding services that help Albertans resolve their family law issues in a manner that promotes family well-being while reducing pressure on the courts.” The survey, which launched on November 22^nd,is open to Albertans until December 20^th, 2024.

As recently as 2023, there have been several major investments in family justice in the province, include $5 million to expand pre-court services in Edmonton and Calgary. In 2025, $3 million will be allocated to the expansion of the province’s Family Justice Strategy to Red Deer. The province continues to see an increase in the number of Albertans accessing pre-court services. As of October 2024, almost 50,000 Albertans accessed pre-court services through the Family Justice Strategy, and almost 27,000 Albertans used the Alberta Family Resolution Hub for the first time. In addition, there has been an almost 13 per cent increase in the use of dispute resolution programs such as mediation.

To learn more about Alberta’s Family Justice Strategy or to access the survey, visit: https://your.alberta.ca/fjs-public/surveys/survey1.

Information for this post was gleaned for the “Expanding access to family justice” news release published by the Government of Alberta: https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=914054E15BAF9-9F5C-DA0E-E71FF8EB0D5BEC66.

New Study Examines Canadians’ Knowledge and Views on the Supreme Court

November 20, 2024November 20, 2024ajrn1 Leave a comment

Non-profit organization, the Angus Reid Institute has published data from a new study on Canadians’ views on the Supreme Court of Canada. Data from the study are organized in the final report according to the following three themes:

Knowledge about the Supreme Court
Views on the Supreme Court’s Impartiality
Supreme Court Reforms

The study reveals that more than half of Canadians believe either justices can hold other jobs (12%) or are unsure (45%) and that justices are appointed for life. Approximately one-third (31%) didn’t know about the term limits. Interestingly, while roughly two-thirds (63%) of Americans can correctly identify at least two Supreme Court justices from a list containing a combination of decoy names and the names of justices, only about one-quarter (25%) of Canadians can do the same.

The study also reveals that a majority of Canadians (62%) believe that the Supreme Court of Canada is impartial, while 22% believe that it is biased. A majority (65%) believe that law is more influential than politics in the decisions dispensed by the Supreme Court. Despite belief in the impartiality of the Supreme Court, fewer than half of Canadians (49%) say that they have confidence in the Supreme Court, while 42% say that they do not have confidence in the Supreme Court.

For other findings from the Angus Reid Institute study, or to view the methodology, demographic characteristics of study respondents, or the questionnaire, please visit: https://angusreid.org/supreme-court-appointment-impartial-bilingualism/.