Month: February 2018

[La version française suit.]

This article originally appeared on The Lawyer’s Daily on February 23, 2018. It is the fifth article in The Honourable Thomas Cromwell’s exclusive Lawyer’s Daily column dedicated to access to civil and family justice.

One of the biggest of the access to justice challenges is the gap in availability of legal services. So many people fall in the gap between eligibility for legal aid and the ability to retain private counsel. One innovative initiative to help fill parts of this gap is the Rise Women’s Legal Centre in Vancouver.

I recently had the good fortune to be invited to the centre and to have the opportunity to see first-hand what impressive and important work it is doing to help close the legal services gap for women, especially those dealing with domestic abuse.

I sat down with Rise’s indefatigable executive director, Kim Hawkins, and here is what we talked about.

TC: Can you tell me how Rise Women’s Legal Centre came into being and what it does?

KH: Rise Women’s Legal Centre is a non-profit legal clinic based in Vancouver that provides family law services to self-identifying women. Rise was founded in 2016 through a partnership between West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (West Coast LEAF) and the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.

Rise was a direct response to the crisis in access to justice in British Columbia, where legal aid funding is one of the lowest per capita in Canada and vast numbers of people have no choice but to represent themselves in court.

Dramatic cuts to legal aid in 2002, which slashed the Legal Services Society’s budget by almost 40 per cent over three years, resulted in the elimination of all poverty law services and severely restricted family law funding in this province. Further cuts to services occurred in 2009 and 2010 when five LSS regional centres as well as the surviving family law clinic were closed. Since that time there have been some pilot projects to improve legal aid, but nothing has come close to replacing the services that were lost.

Although these cuts have impacted everyone who needs access to a lawyer in B.C., they have had a disproportionate impact on women, who are more likely than men to be seeking assistance with poverty and family law issues. The impact of these cuts was exacerbated by other factors such as the more severe impact of marital breakdown on women’s economic security, the gender pay gap and the unequal risk of family violence, in concert with cuts to other women’s services and programs. For example, the Ministry of Women’s Equality and the Human Rights Commission were eliminated (the HRC is now being reinstated), funding to women’s centres was cut, and income assistance was changed so that the “employability” status for single parents was lowered from the time their child turns 7 to when their child turns 3.

Fifteen years later, in their “Agenda for Justice,” published in February 2017, the CBA-BC Branch noted that since 2002 “the Legal Services Society has had no funding to provide family law legal services for the majority of family law matters, including child support, spousal support, division of assets and general custody” and called “for adequate funding to ensure that people who qualify for family law legal aid (71 per cent of whom are women) receive representation for services that promote family security and financial stability.”

Rise was conceived of as a one-stop shop where women could receive free, low-barrier legal assistance with a range of issues. However, since opening we have kept our focus squarely on family law, due to the overwhelming need for this service.

TC: You mentioned that the Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC was a founding partner. Are law students involved in the operation of the centre?

KH: Services at Rise are provided primarily by upper-year law students from UBC participating in an experiential learning externship. The students, who are supervised by on-site lawyers at Rise, learn practical skills in a social justice environment, focusing on the unique circumstances of women and their navigation of the justice system.

This is the first of a two-part series.

The Honourable Thomas Cromwell served 19 years as an appellate judge and chairs the Chief Justice’s Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters. He retired from the Supreme Court of Canada in September of 2016 and is now senior counsel to the national litigation practice at Borden Ladner Gervais.

 

 

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Accès à la justice : Comment le Rise Women’s Legal Centre vient en aide aux membres plus marginalisés de la société par Thomas Cromwell

L’un des défis les plus importants en matière d’accès à la justice est l’écart de disponibilité des services juridiques. Beaucoup de gens ne sont pas admissibles à recevoir de l’aide juridique et ne sont pas non plus en mesure de retenir les services d’un avocat du secteur privé. L’une des initiatives novatrices mises en place pour atténuer cet écart est le Rise Women’s Legal Centre (Centre Rise) à Vancouver.

J’ai récemment eu la chance de visiter le Centre Rise pour voir de mes yeux le travail exceptionnel et impressionnant qui s’y effectue en vue d’aider à combler l’écart relatif aux services juridiques offerts aux femmes, et plus précisément aux femmes victimes de violence familiale.

J’ai pris un moment pour parler avec l’infatigable directrice exécutive du Centre Rise, Mme Kim Hawkins, et voici le résumé de ce dont nous avons discuté.

TC : Pouvez-vous me dire qu’est-ce qui a amené à créer le Centre Rise et ce qu’il fait?

KH : Le Rise Women’s Legal Centre est une clinique juridique sans but lucratif basé à Vancouver qui offre des services en droit de la famille aux femmes qui en ont besoin. Le Centre Rise a été fondé en 2016 grâce à un partenariat entre le West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund Association et la faculté de droit Peter A. Allard de l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique.

Le Centre Rise représente une réponse directe à la crise dans l’accès à la justice en Colombie‑Britannique, là où les gens reçoivent l’un des plus faibles taux de financement en matière d’aide juridique au Canada et où un grand nombre de gens n’ont aucun choix que de se représenter eux-mêmes en cour.

En 2002, il y a eu une réduction importante des fonds accordés à l’aide juridique, ce qui a radicalement amputé le budget de la Legal Services Society d’environ 40 % sur une période de trois ans, a donné lieu à l’élimination de tous les services en matière de droit des pauvres et a considérablement restreint le financement offert en matière du droit de la famille dans la province. En outre, d’autres réductions ont été apportées aux services en 2009 et en 2010 alors que cinq centres régionaux de la Legal Services Society ainsi que la dernière clinique du droit de la famille ont fermé leurs portes. Depuis ce temps, quelques projets pilotes ont été menés pour améliorer l’aide juridique, mais aucun d’eux n’est venu près de remplacer la perte des services.

Bien que ces réductions budgétaires aient été ressenties par tous ceux ayant besoin d’avoir accès à un avocat en Colombie-Britannique, l’incidence sur les femmes était disproportionnée, car ce sont elles qui ont plus tendance que les hommes à chercher de l’aide pour des questions de droit de la famille et des pauvres. L’incidence de ces réductions a été exacerbée par d’autres facteurs tels que les répercussions plus graves sur la sécurité économique des femmes à la suite de la rupture du mariage, l’écart de salaire entre les genres et le risque inégal de violence familiale, de concert avec d’autres compressions budgétaires sur le plan des services et programmes offerts aux femmes. Par exemple, le ministère de l’Égalité de la femme et la Commission des droits de la personne ont été éliminés (le deuxième est présentement rétabli), on a mis fin au financement accordé aux centres pour les femmes et des changements ont été apportés au programme d’aide au revenu pour que l’état d’employabilité des parents monoparentaux baisse du moment où leur enfant atteint l’âge de 3 ans plutôt que l’âge de 7 ans.

Quinze ans plus tard, la division de la Colombie-Britannique de l’Association du Barreau canadien a indiqué dans son rapport de février 2017, « Agenda for Justice », que depuis 2002, la Legal Services Society n’a reçu aucun financement pour la prestation de services juridiques en matière de droit de la famille pour répondre à la plupart des questions de droit familial, y compris les pensions alimentaires pour les enfants, les pensions alimentaires pour époux, le partage des biens et les accords de garde généraux. Dans son rapport, elle demande un financement adéquat afin de s’assurer que les gens qui sont admissibles à recevoir de l’aide juridique en matière de droit de la famille (71 % desquels sont des femmes) sont représentés et obtiennent des services qui améliorent la sécurité familiale et la stabilité financière.

Le Centre Rise a été conçu pour servir de guichet unique aux femmes ayant besoin d’aide juridique gratuitement et sans obstacle pour une variété de questions. Toutefois, depuis l’ouverture du centre, nous nous sommes concentrés uniquement sur la fourniture de conseils en droit de la famille en raison du besoin démesuré dans ce domaine.

TC : Vous avez mentionné que la faculté de droit Peter A. Allard de l’Université de la Colombie‑Britannique est un partenaire fondateur. Les étudiants en droit participent-ils aux opérations du Centre Rise?

KH : Les services du Centre Rise sont principalement fournis par des étudiants en droit de dernière année du premier cycle de l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique dans le cadre d’un programme d’externat d’apprentissage par l’expérience. Les étudiants, qui sont supervisés par des avocats sur place au Centre Rise, acquièrent des compétences pratiques dans un milieu juridique social, lesquelles sont axées sur les circonstances uniques des femmes et leur cheminement au sein du système de justice.

Il s’agit du premier article d’une série de deux.

L’honorable Thomas Cromwell a été juge d’appel pendant 19 ans et siège au Comité d’action sur l’accès à la justice en matière civile et familiale des juges en chef. Il a pris sa retraite de la Cour suprême du Canada en septembre 2016 et agi désormais comme avocat principal dans le domaine du contentieux au sein du cabinet Borden Ladner Gervais.

This article was originally published by The Lawyer’s Daily (www.thelawyersdaily.ca), part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.

The price paid for legal problems is not just made up of dollars and cents, but with impacts on health, loss of employment and an increased reliance on social assistance, reports the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ).

Three reports from the CFCJ, released on Jan. 5, break down the number of Canadians experiencing a variety of legal problems and the impact they have on different aspects of their lives. The reports show that millions of Canadians experience physical and mental health problems, loss of employment and a loss of housing as a direct consequence of legal problems.

“These reports focus on three specific areas and I think what they all do is highlight the importance of thinking about justice from the user’s perspective as opposed to only the providers’ perspective,” said Trevor Farrow, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and principal investigator on the CFCJ reports.

“I think we’re starting to understand that how the user perceives and experiences the system is very different,” he added, explaining that in order to move into a more modern and accessible legal system the gap between user experience and legal offerings needs to close.

The report on health impacts is based on feedback from over 3,000 Canadians describing legal problems they’ve faced over a three-year period. The data shows that 30 per cent of people experiencing one legal problem during that time frame had issues with their physical health. Further to that number, over 65 per cent of the respondents visited a physician more frequently than normal due to their legal problem.

In the report highlighting loss of employment and housing, the CFCJ points to its Cost of Justice survey, which noted that approximately 100,839 people lose their housing every year as a result of experiencing legal problems. People in this position have to turn to friends, relatives or emergency housing such as shelters to keep a roof over their heads. The number of weeks respondents were without their own home varied, but around 22 per cent were without a home for less than four weeks, while over 11 per cent reported that they were without a home for 52 weeks or longer.

Farrow said the reports are the first in Canada to document the monetary value of social costs legal problems cause on a national scale. He explained this data shows what will happen to people across the country if legal services continue to be inaccessible.

“On one level these reports are designed to provide, as far as possible, neutral views on the impacts of legal problems on various parts of people’s daily lives. What we do with that information is now the million-dollar question,” said Farrow, adding that he hopes the reports will influence policy-makers to think differently about budgets and law reform.

Farrow believes more research needs to be done to capture the cost of justice across Canada and that this is a good opportunity to break down silos and collaborate with other service providers.

“We see that justice problems are part of a continuum of social problems: housing issues, education issues, etc. So I think it makes the case for why collaboration on legal services and social services is important,” he said, adding that this data is also a strong argument for investing in the justice system.

“I think justice has certainly been at the lower end of the budget scale compared to other items like policing, health and education. Of course those other sectors are important and they need to be resourced. What we’re starting to see with these reports is we’ve punched way below our weight in terms of justice budgets. We have not really understood the dramatic impact that inaccessible justice has on people’s well-being,” he explained.

Highlighting that legal problems have a social impact, and therefore a direct cost to the state, is just one step in the right direction, Farrow noted. He said it’s unfair for the burden of problem solving to be left to individual lawyers and now is the time for regulators to take a larger role.

“We’re not going to solve all the problems at the retail level in terms of at every lawyer’s office. Having said that, we know that legal services get ultimately delivered to society generally through lawyers in this country because we still have a self-regulated profession. Because of that I think it would be improper and unfortunate if we all, as individuals, don’t start to take seriously what we now know as the impact of what the kinds of services we provide and the kinds of experiences people have,” he said, adding that this data will make a difference in the way people view unbundling of legal services, pro bono work and creative collaboration with other professionals.

“At the wholesale level, in terms of the law societies, regulatory regimes and government, I think the question now is: what are we going to do now to support lawyers in order to make services, our courts and tribunals accessible?” he said.

Farrow believes that if regulators and lawyers don’t find a way to increase access to justice the public will find ways to go around the system.

“If the body that’s been given the responsibility to deliver justice in the province and in the country is not up to the task then, quite frankly, the market and the people are going to simply look elsewhere. So I think it’s high time that the profession and individual lawyers become part of the solution as opposed to maintaining part of the problematic landscape,” he said.

Farrow notes that consumers are going to start turning more to companies such as Axess Law, a law-made-easy company, or online dispute resolution if the legal profession doesn’t innovate soon.

“I think, quite frankly, what we need to do is start having these topics become part of the everyday conversations of the public. It will start to become a matter of public interest and, I hope, we’ll get the strong attention of our elected officials. That’s when real social change gets driven. I think we’re in a good place, but I think this has implications beyond lawyers and clients. It really connects to all of us,” he said.

The three reports make up part of the CFCJ’s Cost of Justice project, which has been examining the social and economic costs of the Canadian justice system since 2011.