Justice Crisis

Unfulfilled legal needs are at a tipping point in much of the Canadian justice system. The Justice Crisis assesses what is and isn’t working in efforts to strengthen a fundamental right of democratic citizenship: access to civil and family justice. Contributors to this wide-ranging overview of recent empirical research address key issues: the extent and cost of unmet legal needs; the role of public funding; connections between legal and social exclusion among vulnerable populations; the value of new legal pathways; the provision of justice services beyond the courts and lawyers; and the need for a culture change within the justice system.

"The Justice Crisis is required reading for anyone who desires a just society. At once thoughtful and bold, this compendium offers insightful ideas on how we can take access to justice from slogan to reality."—Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, "Farrow and Jacobs are to be congratulated on bringing together a wealth of new empirical evidence, shining an original light on the access to justice crisis in civil and family law. The volume provides a rich source of innovative thinking about the complex issues of cost and value of access to justice, while underlining the need for better evidence to support service and system transformation."—Dame Hazel Genn, author of Paths to Justice: What People Do and Think about Going to Law, "The Justice Crisis is required reading for anyone who desires a just society. At once thoughtful and bold, this compendium offers insightful ideas on how we can take access to justice from slogan to reality.", Farrow and Jacobs are to be congratulated on bringing together a wealth of new empirical evidence, shining an original light on the access to justice crisis in civil and family law. The volume provides a rich source of innovative thinking about the complex issues of cost and value of access to justice, while underlining the need for better evidence to support service and system transformation.

Trevor C.W. Farrow is a professor and former associate dean at Osgoode Hall Law School, and the chair of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice. His books include Civil Justice, Privatization, and Democracy and The Theory and Practice of Representative Negotiation (with Colleen Hanycz and Frederick H. Zemans), and he is a co-editor of The Courts and Beyond: The Architecture of Justice in Transition (with Patrick Molinari).Lesley A. Jacobs is vice-president of research and innovation at Ontario Tech University and York Research Chair in Human Rights and Access to Justice at York University, where he is currently a professor on leave. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) in 2017 and has written or edited numerous books, most recently Grey Zones in International Economic Law and Global Governance (with Daniel Drache).Contributors: Carolyn Carter, Thomas A. Cromwell, Ab Currie, Matthew Dylag, Heather Heavin, Devon Kapoor, Michaela Keet, Jennifer Koshan, Herbert M. Kritzer, Moktar Lamari, Marylène Leduc, M. Jerry McHale, Lisa Moore, Janet Mosher, Pierre Noreau, Mitchell Perlmutter, Catherine Piché, Noel Semple, Lorne Sossin, Michael Trebilcock, Wanda Wiegers, David Wiseman