The idea of paths to justice is a foundational metaphor for access to justice in the contemporary discourse on legal problems. In her seminal research, Professor Genn focused on the legal needs of the public rather than issues related to the courts[1]. Her approach was to focus on the behaviour of members of the public in dealing with non-trivial justiciable civil problems and disputes, identifying and mapping the strategies people used to deal with them from the bottom up.[2] The legal problems research shows that people use a variety of ordinary means to deal with everyday problems, often because they do not recognize the legal nature of the problem and, as a consequence, do not seek legal advice to deal with it.
The extent to which paths to justice were determined by the trusted intermediaries to whom newcomers turned to for help was an important unanticipated finding of a three-year “Newcomer Conversations: Learning Canadian Law Project” carried out by Halton Community Legal Services (HCLS). HCLS is a community legal clinic that provides free poverty law services to low-income residents of Halton Region, a short distance west of Toronto. During the project, lawyers from HCLS led 144 interactive PLE workshops called “newcomer conversations.” The interactive format encouraged participants to discuss problems they were currently experiencing, making the PLE session more directly relevant to them.
An estimated 2,063 newcomers participated in the workshops from March 2019 to April 2021. The conversations were hosted by nine community organizations that provided services to newcomers and covered six legal topics: workers’ rights, tenants’ rights, wills/powers of attorney (POAs), family law, public benefits, and human rights and discrimination. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became necessary to change from in-person to virtual workshops. Eighty-two of the 144 conversations (57%) were held in-person, while 62 (43%) were held virtually. Newcomer participants were asked to complete a short survey modeled on the legal health check-up developed by HCLS that helped them identify potential legal problems relevant to the conversation topic. Participants had the option at the end of the survey to request a follow-up call from HCLS for help with any of the problems they identified.
In post-conversation focus groups and individual interviews, newcomers stated that they were most likely to first seek legal help from a settlement specialist or an English as a Second Language (ESL) / Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) Instructor.[3] About one third of participants (37%) requested a follow-up call from HCLS. However, only 5% of them became new or returning clients of the clinic. Even though disadvantaged groups are typically hard to contact for follow-up assistance, the number of newcomers requesting assistance from the community legal clinic was far below what had initially been expected. The relatively low number of call requests and new clients was largely attributable to newcomers’ strong preference to seek help from trusted intermediaries. Newcomers reported that they would continue to seek help from a service provider they trust, even after attending a conversation and learning about HCLS’s free legal and interpretation services.
A majority of service providers in trusted intermediary organizations (82%) reported in post-project interviews that they would refer their client to HCLS. Some would also call HCLS directly to make a “warm referral” and, if necessary, would translate for a newcomer client with low ESL skills who was in need of assistance.[4] Others would call HCLS for a “legal secondary consultation.” This is where a clinic lawyer, licensed paralegal or experienced legal worker (the LSC advisor) provides one-on-one advice by telephone or e-mail to the service provider to help the provider resolve problems for their newcomer clients. The newcomer experiencing the problem does not become a direct client of the clinic unless the LSC advisor decides on a referral. Some settlement specialists also indicated that they sometimes provided assistance themselves, or made referrals to other organizations, if they thought the client’s legal problem was not serious enough to make a referral to a lawyer.[5] It cannot be assumed that service providers possess a high degree of legal capability to make judgements about the presence of a legal issue and the need for a clinical assessment by a lawyer. This suggests that HCLS should continue to work very closely with service providers in organizations assisting newcomers to ensure they understand the interplay between legal and non-legal problems and the holistic nature of services provided by the clinic.
The Newcomer Conversations Project followed an approach of partnering with community organizations to gain access to hard-to-reach groups that has been central to the work of HCLS for years.[6] The evaluation of the project indicates that HCLS should continue to develop collaborative partnerships with trusted intermediaries to effectively reach and serve as many newcomers living in Halton as possible. The research shows the important role of trusted intermediaries in determining pathways to assistance. The paths to justice perspective emphasizes how the collaboration between community legal clinics and community organizations must include an understanding of how the behaviour of people in need and of trusted intermediaries to whom they will likely turn first for help, shape the paths to justice they will follow. Otherwise, the best laid plans for providing assistance will not work as well as they might.
This blog was written by Ab Currie, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, Brandon D. Stewart, J.D., LL.M., J.S.D., Assistant Professor, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law and Giulia Reinhardt, Executive Director/Lawyer, Halton Community Legal Services.
[1] Hazel Genn, Paths to Justice: What people do and think about going to law, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 1999.
[2] Ibid., p. 12
[3] Brandon D Stewart, Building Trusting Relationships Through Interactive PLE Conversations: A Report on the Newcomer Conversations-Learning Project, Halton Community Legal Services, September 2021, p. 53-54
[4] Ibid. p. 80
[5] Ibid., p. 57
[6] Brandon D. Stewart and Ab Currie, Legal Secondary Consultation: Expanding the Reach of Ontario’s Community Legal Clinics Through Community Partnerships, Acesso a Justica nes Americas, Justice Forum of the Ibero Latin-American Working Group, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2021, pp. 103-125 (with Brandon Stewart)