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Research

The Civil Justice System and the Public

See our Publications section for a list of reports and articles about the project, and our research findings.

Introduction

The Civil Justice System and the Public is a collaborative research program founded on the belief that a lack of effective communication both within the civil justice system and between that system and the public, is a significant barrier interfering with access to justice. This research is designed to involve both the public and the justice community in identifying changes in communication practice that will improve the system. The goal of the project is to make specific and clear recommendations for effective change that will ultimately improve access to the civil justice system by increasing the ability of the system to hear, involve, and respond to the public.

An Alberta pilot of the project was funded by the Alberta Law Foundation, and funding for a five year national study was provided by a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The project followed a collaborative action research approach and has established a large national academic and community partnership representative of all the players involved in the civil justice system.

Data collection was conducted in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut and British Columbia. In Alberta and Nunavut we held a series of focus groups to take our analysis of the research data back to the participating communities for their further input. Focus groups will be held in British Columbia in the spring of 2007 and in the remaining research jurisdictions as funding becomes available. Case studies of good communication practices were also identified to provide information about specific programs and a mode for collaborative evaluation of new programs. Now in the final stage of the project, we are working with our partners to develop and circulate research products that will ensure our findings lead to new knowledge and improved communication practices.

Project Description

The Civil Justice System and the Public research began in the spring of 2001 with the receipt of significant research grants from the Alberta Law Foundation ($110,000) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council ($600,000). A further $328,000 was granted by SSHRC as a Completion Grant, for total funding in excess of $1 million. These research grants have enabled the creation of a collaborative research alliance made up of academics and representatives of all of the key stakeholders involved in the administration of justice in Canada. Together, this unprecedented partnership has developed a program of research that lays the foundation for a model of civil justice reform which is collaborative and responsive to user needs. The focus of this research is on understanding and improving communication within the civil justice system, and between the civil justice system and the public.

This research has broken new ground in a number of ways:

  1. We have established a large, national partnership which includes academic and community partners. We have tried to ensure that we are working with representatives of all of the players involved in the civil justice system.
  2. The extensive partnership and a collaborative approach to the research are key to our “action research” design, which has involved our partners in the drafting of research questions, data collection, analysis and dissemination. By involving our partners, we have ensured a high level of buy-in, and have been able to promote change through the process of conducting the research itself.
  3. We chose a qualitative research method where participants are involved in an interview that explores communication approaches and discovers effective communication practices as well as barriers.
  4. This is the first study of communication channels within the civil justice system in Canada.

The Civil Justice System and the Public research provided a natural starting point to address serious concerns which have been raised both from within and outside the civil justice system, about public access to justice and the ability of the system to speak to, hear and respond to the public. These concerns about public access and communication underlie many recent reports and initiatives advocating and implementing civil justice reforms (for example the Canadian Bar Association, Report of the Canadian Bar Association Task Force on Systems of Civil Justice, 1996 at 17). These reports also recognize that Canadian citizens must have a role in legal reform.

The focus of our research is on understanding and improving communication within the civil justice system, and between the civil justice system and the public. We define communication as “including the active participation of all involved parties for the purpose of sharing knowledge by various means that include formal education and informal learning of all kinds. Imbedded in the process are various aspects which include informing the public about the civil justice system, communication between various components within the civil justice system, and interactive communication where the public communicates with the civil justice system" (see the Working Document).

The research action involves four interrelated tracks: Partnership Coordination; Data Collection; Case Studies; Dissemination Activities.

Partnership Coordination

One of the objectives of the Civil Justice System and the Public research was the creation of a partnership made up of the key stakeholders in the justice system: academia, the judiciary, the legal profession, court administration, public legal education agencies, community organizations and the public. The extensive partnership that came together to form this Research Alliance is unprecedented in the justice community. Four Research Directors from the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice and the University of Alberta took the lead in directing this research along with the Research Coordinator and our research partners. Our partners include the University of Alberta (with academics from a number of faculties), the Public Legal Education Association of Canada and member agencies, the Canadian Judicial Council, the Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges, the Canadian Bar Association National, the Association of Canadian Court Administrators, the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, Justice Canada, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, the Alberta Law Reform Institute, the Legal Aid Society of Alberta, and the Yellowhead Tribal Community Corrections Society.

We have fostered the partnership through two surveys designed to capture our partner’s needs and interests in becoming involved in the research and their specific views on communication and how communication should be improved in the civil justice system. In August 2002, Research Coordinator Mary Stratton, Teresa Rose (one of four Research Directors) and three of our community partners, participated in the Academy of Management Practitioners’ Workshop Series to learn more about conducting such a large scale, collaborative research project. We obtained funding from the Department of Justice Canada ($15,000) and the Alberta Law Foundation ($13,635) to bring our partners together for a Partner Symposium in March 2003. This Symposium was the first opportunity for our partners to meet each other, hear about common concerns, and work together. The feedback from all of our partners was positive, and it is clear that the three days our partners spent together has fostered the development of a true network in the civil justice community.

Our partners are now working with us to further dissemination of the rich knowledge gained from this project and to use it to assist in achieving needed civil justice reform.

Data Collection and Analysis

We chose a multiple method design for the project, using primarily in-depth interviews, but also including a short questionnaire, researcher observations, case studies of good communication practices, and an international literature review about practices in communication between the civil justice system and the public from which we have produced an annotated bibliography. We have also conducted a small exploratory media project that reviews the legal content in selected print media. The purpose of this media study is to take a snapshot of the extent and focus of civil justice coverage and to discuss the role of print media in providing information about civil justice to the public.

The main contribution to our data comes from the interviews that we have conducted in selected court sites across Canada, with key players working in the civil justice system and members of the public who are familiar with the system through their participation as plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses. Beginning in the spring of 2002 we conducted interviews in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut and British Columbia. A total of 185 interviews were completed with people within the justice community and 108 with members of the public who had been involved in a civil case.

We have completed the basic data analysis and have engaged in a variety of dissemination activities including publications and presentations to our partners and other members of the justice community. The rich data provided by the interviews and other data collection sources will allow us to continue developing new avenues to communicate our findings for some time to come.

Facilitated by funding from the Alberta Law Foundation, Alberta has served as a ‘pilot’ jurisdiction in each stage of the research process. Beginning in the summer of 2004, we held a series of focus groups at our Alberta research locations to bring our findings back to the research participants and other interested members of the communities. We have now held seven focus groups: two with members of the Justice community, two with members of the public, two with both members of the public and the justice community together, and one specifically concerned with our findings about Aboriginal issues and access to civil justice.

We also obtained funding through a SSHRC Northern Research Development grant to conduct community workshops at sites in Nunavut and Ottawa, and from the Law Foundation of British Columbia to conduct focus groups in Vancouver and Surrey. We continue to seek funding that will allow us to conduct similar groups in each of the national research jurisdictions.

Case Studies

The second phase of our data collection involved case studies which look at current reform initiatives that are aimed at improving communication, and are being undertaken in the civil justice system. We are working collaboratively with the courts and other justice organizations involved in these initiatives to develop relevant methods of measuring whether communication has improved. In Alberta, we conducted a case study in collaboration with one of our project partners, the Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI). This case study is about the Alberta Rules of Court Project, an initiative to conduct a major review of the rules that govern practice and procedure in civil actions in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and Court of Appeal. ALRI designed a variety of consultation processes to include both members of the public and the justice community in the reform process. This case study report is currently being prepared and will be available on our publications page when completed.

We have also been a member of the Steering Committee for the British Columbia Supreme Court Self-Help Information Centre. The Self-Help Centre, located in the Vancouver Law Courts, was brought about by an innovative collaboration of many members of the British Columbia justice community. The purpose of the Centre is to help self-represented litigants prepare for a Supreme Court family or civil case. The Centre provides legal information and referrals to other available resources. An evaluation of this pilot program has been completed and we will also make available on our publications page a case study report that pays particular attention to the model of collaborative communication provided by this initiative.

Dissemination Activities

As part of our action approach, dissemination activities have been ongoing since the inception of the research project. Because of the active and engaged participation of our partners we can ensure that our findings are broadly known, understood and acted upon. This is being accomplished through joint initiatives including educational workshops and presentations at national conferences, writing for academic and professional journals, development of curricula, expansion of our research web-page, how-to-manuals, communication with the public through print, radio and television media, and a comprehensive research report aimed at informing our many audiences.

Many of our project publications are available on-line. For a full list of all of our dissemination activities, see our Record of Knowledge MobilizationPDF.

Our dissemination activities fall into three broad areas:

Dissemination about the research project itself

Part of an action approach to research involves making sure that members of the justice community and members of the public are aware of the project. As well as creating this research web page, we have made many presentations to civil justice organizations and submitted articles and interviews to a wide range of media including justice and academic community publications, local public newspapers and radio stations. We also held key contact meetings with the Chiefs of each level of the courts in our research jurisdictions, as well as the head of legal aid, the Canadian Bar Association, senior court staff and other local community organizations.

Dissemination about the research methodology

Our collaborative partnership and multiple method approach to this large, national research project has been the subject of much interest among sociologists and methodologists in Canada and internationally. Talking to these groups about the research methodology is also another way to bring attention to the civil justice issues involved. We have made presentations at the 4th Advances in Qualitative Methods in Banff, May 2nd 2003; the 20th Qualitative Analysis Conference in Ottawa, May 25th 2003; the Canadian Universities Expo International Conference in Saskatoon, May 8th 2003; and the CAUCE conference for continuing educators, May 2003. We also have a draft paper under revision called “How Collaborative is Collaborative: Ideals and Challenges, Tensions and Potentials In Partnership Research.” This paper can be obtained directly from the Forum upon request.

Dissemination of our research findings

With our data collection complete, our main focus is on sharing our findings in a variety of ways that meet the needs of partners and ensure our findings lead to new knowledge and improved communication practices. We have already made many presentations recorded on our Record of Knowledge MobilizationPDF. Many of our publications are available via links on our website's Publications section, including a detailed report of the project which was released at the Into the Future conference held in Montreal, April 30 – May 2, 2006. Although the primary funding for this project ended in June 2006, the rich data we have gathered has the potential to inform many more reports significant to our justice community partners, some of which have already commissioned special reports on issues of particular relevance to their organizations. We anticipate that we will continue to create and circulate new information based on the research findings for some time to come.

Research Instruments

The following research instruments are examples of materials used in The Civil Justice System and the Public field research. These examples are designed for interviews with members of the public. The versions for use with the justice community can be obtained from the Forum upon request.

The "Preview of Interview Questions" is provided to the research participants prior to the interview. The full Interview Guide containing all protocol and procedures used by the field researchers can be requested from the Forum.

To request additional material or information about the field research e-mail Mary Stratton (mstratto@law.ualberta.ca).