Digital Commons Network^™

Nudging The Paradigm Shift, Everyday Legal Problems In Canada, Ab Currie

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

The subject of this paper is the everyday legal problems experienced by the public in Canada. This area of study is best understood by distinguishing it from the legal problems that are adjudicated in the courts or resolved by lawyers. The term everyday legal problem1 derives from Hazel Genn’s term, justiciable events.2 A justiciable event is a problem or issue that occurs in the normal life of an individual: for example buying and selling, entering into a contract, gaining and losing employment, forming or dissolving domestic relationships that involve some measure of dependency, managing the medical or financial affairs of …

The Osgoode Brief (Fall 2016), Osgoode Hall Law School Of York University

The Osgoode Brief

No abstract provided.

Volume 90, Issue 1 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Further Research Update: Paralegals, The Cost Of Justice And Access To Justice: A Case Study Of Residential Tenancy Disputes In Ottawa, David Wiseman

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

A further and final year of data gathered for this case study has reinforced the message that paralegals, who purportedly offer more affordable and accessible legal services than lawyers, are continuing to make a significant contribution to the resolution of residential tenancy disputes in Ottawa, but only for landlords and, largely, for corporate landlords. The reinforcement of this message across a data set now spanning five years of residential tenancy dispute cases for the Eastern Region of the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario further solidifies a conclusion that who provides more affordable and accessible legal services can have an …

Everyday Legal Problems And The Cost Of Justice In Canada: Survey, David Northrup, Ab Currie, Trevor C. W. Farrow, Lesley Jacobs, Nicole Aylwin

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

The Cost of Justice project (2011-2017) examines the social and economic costs of Canada’s justice system. It is guided by two questions: What is the cost of delivering access to justice? And what is the cost of not delivering access to justice? Comprised of leading researchers investigating various dimensions of access to justice and cost across the country, the Cost of Justice project is producing empirical data that will inform the future of access to justice in Canada and abroad. The lead research team includes: Trevor C.W. Farrow (Principal Investigator), Nicole Aylwin, Les Jacobs, Lisa Moore, and Diana Lowe.

Everyday Legal Problems And The Cost Of Justice In Canada: Overview Report, Trevor C. W. Farrow, Ab Currie, Nicole Aylwin, Lesley Jacobs, David Northrup, Lisa Moore

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

Law and legal problems are part of everyday life. If you have ever been harassed at work, unfairly fired or evicted, divorced, not received support payments, disputed a will or a cell phone contract, or had your credit rating challenged, you may have already experienced one of these types of everyday legal problems. If so, you are not alone. Almost half (48.4%) of Canadians over 18 will experience at least one civil or family justice problem over any given three-year period. Even though many Canadians do not understand, feel connected to or welcomed by the justice system,2 essentially all of …

Rural And Remote Access To Justice Infographic, Canadian Forum On Civil Justice

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

N/A

Canadian Civil Justice: Relief In Small And Simple Matters In An Age Of Efficiency, Jonathan Silver, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

Canada is in the midst of an access to justice crisis. The rising costs and complexity of legal services in Canada have surpassed the need for these services. This article briefly explores some obstacles to civil justice as well as some of the court-based programmes and initiatives in place across Canada to address this growing access to justice gap. In particular, this article explains the Canadian civil justice system and canvasses the procedures and programmes in place to make the justice system more efficient and improve access to justice in small and simple matters. Although this article does look briefly …

Having A Say: Democracy, Access To Justice And Self-Represented Litigants, Jennifer Ann Leitch

PhD Dissertations

Access to Justice is one of the most contested issues on the law-and-society agenda. There is a long-standing exchange over its meaning, objectives, and success. Beneath that engagement, there is a deeper and more basic debate about the overall ambitions for access to justice: is the goal to improve peoples access to the legal process and generate more positive outcomes (the practical thesis), or to enhance peoples participation and ultimately their ability to affect justice as an end in itself (the democratic thesis)? This thesis adopts the latter approach.

The plight of self-represented litigants (SRLs) offers a revealing glimpse into …

Special Speaker Series Highlights Osgoode Professional Development’S 20th Anniversary, Office Of External Relations & Communications

Media Releases

TORONTO, February 4, 2016 – Osgoode Professional Development (OsgoodePD) is proudly celebrating 20 years as Canada’s leading legal educator for professionals with the launch this month of a three-part speaker series on some of the most pressing, and sometimes controversial, legal topics affecting Canadians.

“As I think back on the last 20 years, OsgoodePD has really been at the forefront of leading legal education in Canada for both legal and non-legal professionals,” said OsgoodePD Executive Director Victoria Watkins. “This speaker series offers a glimpse of what our programs cover – high-quality, timely and relevant content from the experts. We wanted …

Volume 89, Issue 10 (2016)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

The Pragmatic Limits Of Access To Justice, Hart Schwartz, Anthony Robert Sangiuliano

The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference

The Supreme Court of Canada’s Charter jurisprudence often resembles a seesaw. The Court will tilt toward a robust approach that favours individual rights and freedoms only to adjust a short time later when the broader social or economic costs of its expansive jurisprudence become evident. Expansion is followed by contraction. Whether this pattern is best described in terms of “trimming its sails”, taking corrective measures, or simply clarifying doctrinal scope, the Court has teetered to one side and tottered back again on a number of occasions.

The concept of “access to justice” is one example. In 2014 it had been …

Everyday Legal Problems And The Cost Of Justice In Canada: Overview Report, Trevor C. W. Farrow, Ab Currie, Nicole Aylwin, Lesley Jacobs, David Northrup, Lisa Moore

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

Law and legal problems are part of everyday life. If you have ever been harassed at work, unfairly fired or evicted, divorced, not received support payments, disputed a will or a cell phone contract, or had your credit rating challenged, you may have already experienced one of these types of everyday legal problems. If so, you are not alone. Almost half (48.4%) of Canadians over 18 will experience at least one civil or family justice problem over any given three-year period. Even though many Canadians do not understand, feel connected to or welcomed by the justice system, essentially all of …

Investment Treaties And The Internal Vetting Of Regulatory Proposals: A Case Study From Canada, Gus Van Harten, Dayna Nadine Scott

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

In this paper, we report findings on whether trade and investment agreements that allow for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) contribute to regulatory chill. The study focused on whether ISDS contributed to changes in internal vetting of government decisions related to environmental protection in the province of Ontario, Canada. Our main source of information was confidential interviews with insiders, mostly current or former officials in ministries with an environmental or trade mandate. We aimed to advance understanding of litigation risk and government decision-making with a focus on ISDS.

Continuum: Volume 40 (Winter 2016), Osgoode Hall Law School Of York University

Continuum: Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Magazine

No abstract provided.

Osgoodepd: Twenty Years And Twenty Stories, Osgoode Hall Law School Of York University

Law School Publications

Over the past 20 years, OsgoodePD has been a part of the learning journey for over 50,000 people. With over 1,300 CLE programs and 2,500 LLM degrees awarded, we’ve had professionals from all walks of life and from all over the world grace our classrooms and discussions. We wanted to share more widely some of the incredible diversity in experience and perspective that we get to see on a daily basis.

We asked 20 people who have been a part of OsgoodePD over the past 20 years to give us their perspectives on professional development. We asked them about their …

A False Start In Constitutionalizing Lawyer Loyalty In Canada (Attorney General) V. Federation Of Law Societies Of Canada, Amy Salyzyn

The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference

In Canada (Attorney General) v. Federation of Law Societies of Canada, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada surprised many legal observers by choosing to recognize a new principle of fundamental justice pursuant to section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: a lawyer’s duty of commitment to a client’s cause. In this article, I critique the majority’s choice to recognize this new principle of fundamental justice after first reviewing the Court’s reasons and their background.

At issue in this case was the constitutionality of the federal government’s statutory regime for preventing and investigating money laundering and …

The Helping Profession : Can Pro Bono Lawyers Make Sick Children Well?, Lorne Sossin

Articles & Book Chapters

"Can pro bono lawyers make sick children well? Surprisingly, the answer might be yes. Or at least pro bono lawyers can improve patients’ experiences and health outcomes for families caught up in the hospital system. ... a pioneering initiative in Boston to locate legal clinics in hospitals. Word of this experiment reached Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO), an organization active in referring hospital cases to lawyers willing to take on pro bono cases. The benefits of coordinating such cases through a hospital-based pro bono clinic were clear, and the Family Legal Health Program, renamed PBLO at SickKids, was born."

Why Coywolf Goes To Court, Signa A. Daum Shanks

Articles & Book Chapters

This article is an effort influenced by previous works considered part of "trickster" discourse. But unlike other trickster stories meant to illustrate First Nations’ contents and processes, this presentation creates a Métis-specific example of trickster methodology and knowledge. Similar to the historic role Métis individuals have had in Canadian history, this effort contains a type of "translator" system within its citations so that the main story parallels information about trends in Canadian legal analysis. By having this format, it is hoped that those less familiar with Métis courtroom struggles will gain insight into how the pursuit of Métis constitutionalism both …

Equality Before The Law? Evaluating Criminal Case Outcomes In Canada, Michael Trebilcock, Albert Yoon

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

One of our most strongly held ideals is that individuals receive equal treatment under the law. Incidents of wrongful conviction or wide disparities in sentencing, however, challenge this premise. While legal scholars have recently examined this premise, our understanding remains largely normative or anecdotal. Scholars have begun to identify factors that influence legal outcomes, yet this question has remained largely unexplored in Canada. This article seeks to advance this inquiry. Using unique data from both the Ontario courts and Legal Aid Ontario during 2007–2013, we find that outcomes in routine criminal cases vary in ways not summarily explained by differences …

Book Note: Law, Psychology, And Morality: The Role Of Loss Aversion, By Eyal Zamir, Dan Adler

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY, as a descriptive theory of human behaviour, claims that individuals seek to maximize their expected well-being.2 But cognitive psychologists have shown this to be false through experimental and empirical research.3 Instead, human behaviour is predictably subject to cognitive biases, resulting in judgments and decisions considered “irrational” by rational choice theorists. One such bias is loss aversion, whereby people prefer not losing some good over gaining a good of equal value.4 In Law, Psychology, and Morality: The Role of Loss Aversion, Eyal Zamir argues that loss aversion provides a partial explanation for many features of human behaviour within …

The Cost Of Uncertainty: Navigating The Boundary Between Legal Information And Legal Services In The Access To Justice Sector, Jennifer Bond, David Wiseman, Emily Bates

Journal of Law and Social Policy

The self-regulatory bodies that oversee legal professionals in Canada maintain strict control on the delivery of legal services, and access to justice projects must therefore always be conscious of activities that would violate certain restrictions. Careful adherence to these parameters is made difficult, however, by the lack of clarity about where the relevant boundaries are drawn. Using a project that provides legal assistance for refugees as a case study, this article highlights the challenges that the unclear distinction between “legal information” and “legal services” creates for access to justice initiatives. We conclude that the uncertainty can carry a variety of …

Disability Disclosure In The Digital Age: Why The Human Rights Tribunal Of Ontario Should Reform Its Approach To Anonymized Decisions, Natalie A. Macdonnell

Journal of Law and Social Policy

This paper provides a critique of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario’s (HRTO) approach to the anonymization of applications brought on the ground of disability. First, I examine the test for obtaining an order for anonymity and the application of this test by the HRTO. The HRTO has consistently held that the importance of open justice outweighs an individual’s privacy concerns about disclosure of disability in a public decision unless there are "unique" or "exceptional" circumstances. I discuss social science evidence related to disclosure of disability and the potential deterring impact of the HRTO’s current approach to anonymization on applicants …

Osgoode Syllabus Of Courses And Seminars: 2016 - 2017, Office Of Student Services

Syllabi

No abstract provided.

The Past And Future Of Constitutional Law And Social Justice: Majestic Or Substantive Equality?, David Wiseman

The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference

This article addresses the past record and future prospects of the relationship between constitutional law and social justice. The exploration of this relationship is framed as a question of the role that constitutional law has played in protecting and advancing a substantive, rather than merely majestic (i.e., formal), conception of equality. After providing an overview of the current state of income deprivation and inequality in Canada, and the implications of this for a constitutional conception of equality, a variety of areas of constitutional law are examined. It is argued that, across these areas, constitutional law has regularly been willing to …

Selected Annotated Bibliography Of National And Regional Legal Needs Survey, Nicole Aylwin, Mandi Gray

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

Since the mid-1990’s there have been at least twenty-six large-scale national surveys on the public’s experience of justiciable events conducted within sixteen separate jurisdictions. Twenty-four of these surveys have utilized the methodological framework of Hazel Genn’s Paths to Justice (1999). Genn’s approach seeks to examine legal needs beyond what may be identified by respondents as a legal need. This approach emerged due to critiques of previous legal needs research that only sought to identify persons who were likely to use legal services rather than the types of problems that are taken to lawyers. Genn’s approach does not rely upon respondent’s …

Volume 89, Issue 7 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Volume 89, Issue 6 (2015)

Obiter Dicta

No abstract provided.

Just In Time Research: Rural & Remote Access To Justice: Intake Platform Research, Canadian Forum On Civil Justice

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

This memo provides a wide scan of tools and platforms that either are, or ostensibly could be, used to conduct intake assessment and document storage in a clinic context. Our findings include comprehensive intake platforms that are designed exclusively for intake purposes, as well as a suite of tools that have broader application but lend themselves to application in an intake environment. We looked at tools marketed to professionals, institutions, businesses, and consumers.

Lawmatters At Your Local Public Library: A History Of Bc’S Program For Public Legal Information And Education In Public Libraries, Janet Freeman, Nancy Hannum

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

Public libraries have always been an important partner in the education of their communities in all aspects of knowledge, including the legal system. In the 1970’s the Law Reform Commission of Canada conducted a survey to research how and where the public found legal information. The resulting Law Reform Commission report published in 1975 included recommendations that more legal information materials be available for public libraries, as well as more training for public librarians to answer legal questions using both print materials and referral resources.