Report of the Access to Legal Services Working Group

This report provides an overview of the conclusions and recommendations of the Access to Legal Services Working Group (ALSWG). For the purposes of this report, the ALSWG defined legal services as: “services to assist people to deal with their legal problems”

Report of the Court Processes Simplification Working Group

The public court process is of vital importance to Canada. It plays a central role in how citizens govern themselves and regulate their rights and relationships in modern democracies. For the system to be effective, it must operate in a way that is just, efficient and proportionate to the needs and resources of the citizens it is designed to serve. Further, the system must be accessible

Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters: Colloquium Report

This report on the Colloquium provides an overview of the Colloquium discussions and a summary of the key messages of those who participated in the two-day event. It attempts to capture the comments, suggestions and major points of dialogue. In addition to providing an overview and summary of the major discussion threads, it also highlights examples provided by participants of initiatives, programs and innovations that are currently working in various jurisdictions

Family Justice Reform: A Review of Reports and Initiatives

The paper was prepared for the Family Justice Working Group of the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters to help guide its discussions on initiatives and innovations likely to have the greatest impact on access to justice. The paper reviews a host of papers and studies written over the last fifteen years on the state of the family justice system

Action Committee Meeting of Provincial and Territorial Access to Justice Groups

On March 13, 2015 the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters (the Action Committee) convened a meeting for existing provincial and territorial access to justice groups (P/T A2J groups), many of which were formed in response to recommendation 5.1 of the Action Committee’s Roadmap Report. 1 The purpose of the meeting was to reflect on the progress made by these groups over the past year, discuss the access to justice initiatives underway in different jurisdictions, highlight promising developments, learn from common challenges, and consider collaborations and cooperation among justice stakeholders that could be further supported by the Action Committee

Meaningful Change for Family Justice: Beyond Wise Words: Final Report of the Family Justice Working Group

Canadians do not have adequate access to family justice. For many years now reports have been telling us that cost, delay, complexity and other barriers are making it impossible for many Canadians to exercise their legal rights. More recently, a growing body of research has begun to quantify the extent of unmet legal need in our communities and to describe the disquieting individual and social consequences of failing to respond adequately to family legal problems

Access to Civil & Family Justice: A Roadmap for Change

There is a serious access to justice problem in Canada. The civil and family justice system is too complex, too slow and too expensive. It is too often incapable of producing just outcomes that are proportional to the problems brought to it or reflective of the needs of the people it is meant to serve. While there are many dedicated people trying hard to make it work and there have been many reform efforts, the system continues to lack coherent leadership, institutional structures that can design and implement change, and appropriate coordination to ensure consistent and cost effective reform. Major change is needed

National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil & Family Matters: Prevention, Triage and Referral Working Group

This report has been prepared by the Prevention, Triage and Referral (PTR) Working Group of the National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters. The Working Group first met in Ottawa on March 2, 2012 and subsequently created a first draft report. The group then consulted with key players in the PTR field across Canada and internationally, using a web survey with a link to a second draft of the report. The survey, conducted in the summer and early fall of 2012, requested feedback on 14 potential recommendations. While the 125 respondents were generally supportive of the recommendations, their collective feedback resulted in a major restructuring for this final report. The focus is now more clearly on how to move the sector forward, and on recommendations that support this process

The Importance of Social Support Structures for Retention and Success

As a policy goal, widening participation is increasingly associated with retention and completion. For those who are concerned with equity or social mobility, it makes little sense to recruit new types of student if they do not then qualify for a graduate profession. There has been growing interest in retention and completion among researchers and policymakers, with much attention centring on the extent to which new students can be helped to integrate into the institution. Drawing on a study of undergraduates in the UK, this chapter explores the extent to which student support services and wider informal support networks feature in students' narratives of retention. Conceptually, we are interested here in the ways in which students feel themselves to be legitimate members of the ‘imagined community' of higher education, a concept that we have adapted from Anderson's treatment of nationalisms (Anderson, 1991)

Unmet needs of people with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: recommendations for change in Australia

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an increasing cause of mortality. However, people with COPD are unlikely to receive care that meets the needs of themselves or their carers at the end of life. AIMS: To explore the needs of people with end-stage COPD in South Australia and develop recommendations for a model of care. METhODS: Three related studies were undertaken: in Study 1, 15 people with advanced COPD and their carers were interviewed twice, 6 months apart; Study 2 investigated views of an Expert Panel and Study 3 conducted focus groups and interviews with service providers and community groups to examine service availability and accessibility. RESULTS: This project demonstrated that the needs of people with COPD are not being met. There was an absence of a coordinated pathway for support. Care was fragmented, episodic and reactive. The role of carers was poorly recognised. Health professionals identified the lack of a clear transition to an end-stage and significant barriers to obtaining support for activities of daily living. Communication issues were identified in all studies, including the absence of advance care planning conversations. CONCLUSIONS: A flexible model of care is needed that assists people with COPD to navigate the health system. This should be patient centred and coordinated across primary, acute and community sectors. Neither respiratory nor palliative care services alone can adequately support people with COPD. The integration of a multidisciplinary palliative approach within a chronic disease management strategy will be central for the best care for people living with advanced COPD.G.B. Crawford, M.A. Brooksbank, M. Brown, T.A. Burgess and M. Youn