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Costly justice: Why communities in Sierra Leone turn to paralegals instead of Local Courts to resolve their justice problems

An estimated 70% of Sierra Leoneans depend on Local Courts for the resolution of justice problems such as child and spousal support, property, tenancy, and land disputes. However, emerging research findings suggest communities are shifting away from the State backed Local Court system, to paralegal organizations. In this blog, we explain the three main factors

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Paralegals, community agency and access to justice in Sierra Leone

Introduction This blog discusses emerging findings from research on access to justice which confirm a long-held view that paralegals support social cohesion and help fill gaps in Sierra Leone’s justice system. These findings are from a three-country research effort, supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa and the International Development and Research Centre

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The Justice Crisis: A New Book about Access to Justice in Canada

We are thrilled to announce the publication of The Justice Crisis: The Cost and Value of Accessing Law edited by Trevor C.W. Farrow and Lesley A. Jacobs. This is the first book to provide an in-depth overview, based on new empirical research, of what is working and not working to improve access to civil and

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In Canada the Rule of Law is Mostly Thick

The 2020 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index has recently been released. The Rule of Law Index and other related analytical reports can be accessed at www.worldjusticeproject.org. Based on the most recent data, which have not changed much since the 2016 annual report, one can conclude that the rule of law in Canada is

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Unreasonable Delays in the Civil Justice System is Canada’s Greatest Weakness According to the 2019 Rule of Law Index

The World Justice Project (WJP) publishes an annual report on the rule of law in more than 100 countries, as determined through in-country household surveys and expert surveys. For countries included in the WJP Rule of Law Index, an overall score and the country’s global and regional rankings are indicated as well as the score

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Time to Invest in Justice

Justice affects everyone. We know that almost 50 per cent of adult Canadians will experience a significant civil or family justice problem over any given three-year period, meaning essentially all of us in our lifetime. Everyday legal problems include debt issues, divorce, lost employment, wage or other discrimination, consumer problems and any number of other

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