Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

From News & Views on Civil Justice Reform Issue 12: “This is not the end of lawyers… but this is the end of the traditional legal business model” by Jordan Furlong

…[A]lthough the economic downturn is a proximate cause of law firms’ troubles, it’s not the only one — if anything, it has simply accelerated a trend that was already underway. Law firms are suffering because their traditional business models are breaking down in the face of a whole host of unprecedented developments.

From News & Views on Civil Justice Reform Issue 12: “The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services” by Richard Susskind, OBE. Excerpts from “Access to Justice,” Chapter 7 of The End of Lawyers? by permission of Oxford University Press.

It has been fashionable for some time now, amongst policy-makers, law reformers, and commentators, to speak of increasing ‘access to justice’…. I do not think we should be satisfied that improving dispute resolution will be sufficient to achieve justice under the law. To be wholly or even largely focused on disputes in our pursuit of justice is, I submit, to miss much that we should expect of our legal systems.

The Board of the Forum is pleased to announce that Chief Justice Francois Rolland of the Quebec Superior Court has joined the Board of the Forum.

The most recent issue of News & Views on Civil Justice Reform is now available. In this issue:

• “The End of Lawyers? excerpts from Chapter 7 ‘Access to Justice’” by Richard Susskind, OBE
• “This is not the end of lawyers…” by Jordan Furlong
• “Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil & Family Matters”
• “An Emerging Model of Access to Justice”
• “Public legal education and information in a Changing Legal Services Spectrum” by Rick Craig
• “Access to Justice with Legal Advice Lines” by John Simpson
• “Paralegals, A Worthwhile Option” by Geneviève Forget
• “Unbundling Legal Services: Is the time now?” by Jeanette Fedorak
• “Putting Legal Aid in the Path of Clients” by Mark Benton, QC
• “Resourcing Access to Justice: Legal Expenses Insurance” by Kenning Marchant, D Jur
• “Pro Bono Publico – For the public good” by Lynn Burns & Noah Aiken-Klar
• “Connecting On-line – Two Examples”
• “Finding Help”
• “Cost of Justice Project”
• “Cross Country Snapshots – Inventory of Justice System Responses”

Our Clearinghouse of civil justice material has been updated with several new publications, including:

• Canadians can’t afford price of justice by Angelo Persichilli
• Top judge adds voice to debate over legal fees by Janice Tibbetts
• It’s about so much more than billable hours by Kirk Makin
• Legal Aid in Canada: Resource and Caseload Statistics
• Limited Retainers: Professionalism and Practice, Report of the Law Society of BC’s Unbundling of Legal Services Task Force
• How to pay for some justice: Legal insurance could be just what Canadians need by Kate Lunau
• Quebec hopes to make justice more accessible by Kevin Doughtery

The annual conference of the International Association of Procedural Law will be held in Toronto on June 3-5, 2009. The theme of the conference is “Common Law/Civil Law: The Future of Categories – Categories of the Future”.

Québec’s Ministry Of Justice has announced that three pilot Community Justice Centres will be opened in Québec City, Sherbrooke and Rimouski in 2009. These centres will offer legal information, legal advice, support services, help with court forms, and dispute resolution services.

Clicklaw, a portal to public legal education and information resources and services in British Columbia, was launched on Law Day, April 18.   The project is the result of a collaboration between 24 organizations with coordination by the Courthouse Libraries BC and funding from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.

The Law Commission of Ontario has undertaken a project to research and improve family law dispute resolution, “Best Practices at Family Justice System Entry Points: Users’ Needs and Workers’ Responses in the Justice System.”  The recommendations from the project will aim to create more efficient and accessible services for Ontarians with family law matters.

“Renewing our Commitment to Legal Aid”, a town hall forum, will be held at Vancouver’s Library Square Conference Centre on Monday, April 27, 2009 at 7pm.