Access to Justice
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February 15, 2024
B.C. invests $29M in legal aid for family violence victims, prompted by constitutional challenge
British Columbia is soon to have a “historic level of access to legal aid services” through the expansion of legal aid eligibility criteria, allowing more people in the province to receive legal representation through a new family law clinic model. The B.C. government is investing $29.1 million in this over the next three years, allowing Legal Aid BC to have the capacity to serve 4,500 new family law clients.
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February 14, 2024
Court rules PM, justice minister ‘failed’ litigants & courts with many tardy judicial appointments
A Federal Court judge has refused to order the Trudeau government to fill the present high level of 75 superior court vacancies within specified timeframes; instead the judge recognized a “constitutional convention” that judicial vacancies “must be filled within a reasonable time” and declared his “expectation” that Ottawa will begin to discharge its unfulfilled constitutional duty to fix the country’s “untenable and appalling crisis and critical judicial vacancy situation,” including by reducing the vacancies to the mid-40s “within a reasonable time.”
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February 14, 2024
Federal Court grants Amnesty International leave to intervene in racial discrimination class action
The Federal Court has granted Amnesty International Canada leave to intervene in the certification motion of a class action concerning allegations that the federal government has discriminated against Black employees for decades.
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February 13, 2024
Envisioning a people-centered A2J research, data agenda | Adrian Di Giovanni and Matthew Burnett
In the words of Supreme Court Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, chair of the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, “Good data and information are essential … the first step in removing the barriers to effective dispute resolution and remodeling the justice system as a people-centred institution.”
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February 13, 2024
SCC’s output fell to 34 judgments in 2023, renewing questions, concerns within the bar
Is the Supreme Court of Canada giving enough legal guidance to Canadians, particularly in private law cases? It’s a question simmering within the legal community, one that attracts the attention of academics and litigators and that might benefit from the court shedding some light, especially because the numbers of cases the nine judges hear and decide have been trending down for more than a decade, without explanation.
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February 08, 2024
Barring intervener counsel from pleading in person at SCC ‘improves access to justice’: CJ Wagner
The Supreme Court of Canada’s controversial policy of restricting intervener counsel to virtual appearances, rather than giving them the same hybrid option as party counsel to appear in person before the judges, “offers substantial savings, especially to those farthest from Ottawa” and “as such levels the playing field and improves access to justice,” Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner told the Canadian Bar Association (CBA).
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February 07, 2024
Victims as part of parole process, part two | Michael Crowley
I have often been asked whether the participation of victim(s) at a hearing materially affected the outcome. As I have thought about this, my sense is that the decision (to grant a release or not) is generally not changed because of victim participation. After all, the information that is being read aloud is already in the file that a member reads to prepare for a hearing, so there is no new information at the hearing itself. And so my normal response is no, the participation of victims at hearings does not change the decision.
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February 05, 2024
Dis-/misinformation, artificial intelligence | Connie L. Braun and Juliana Saxberg
Among the grave and main concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) is the potential for significant amounts of bad, false, incorrect information to be generated. Despite the likely value to companies, the possibility of dis- and misinformation can make these companies skittish about adopting AI and machine learning. In some ways, this skittishness is not surprising, given the high-profile news stories exposing challenges of all kinds that have been reported since the launch of ChatGPT 3.0 in November 2022.
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February 06, 2024
Victims as part of parole process | Michael Crowley
The active participation of the victims of crimes in the parole process in Canada is an important and integral part of the parole board’s work, but this was not always the case.
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February 05, 2024
New president at the helm as B.C. law society holds first meeting of 2024
The Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC) began its first meeting of the year Feb. 2 with a new face at the head of the bencher table. Jeevyn Dhaliwal was officially sworn in as law society president by B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson at the LSBC benchers’ inaugural meeting of 2024, alongside Brook Greenberg and Lindsay LeBlanc, who are serving as first vice-president and second vice-president, respectively.