What are the costs of providing civil justice to Canadians? What are the costs of not providing access to civil justice for Canadians? These two questions are at the heart of one of the exciting projects underway at the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ). “The Cost of Justice: Weighing the Cost of Fair and Effective Resolution to Legal Problems” is a 5-year, SSHRC funded, interdisciplinary research project. The project seeks to fill the current void of evidence-based information on legal, economic, and social costs and benefits of pursuing, or not pursuing, justice through various dispute resolution and prevention pathways.
The Cost of Justice Project is guided by the following key questions:
- What does the civil justice system cost (institutionally and to individual litigants)?
- Who does it serve?
- How well is it meeting the needs of users?
- What is the price of failing to meet the legal needs of Canadians?
Recognizing that a lack of access to justice has costs beyond economic costs is one of the guiding principles of the Cost of Justice Project. The “cost” of justice (or lack thereof) includes more than pricey legal and court fees; it includes things like missed days of work and opportunity costs. Additionally, there are numerous social costs that accrue when unresolved legal problems multiply and cluster.
To assess these costs, The Cost of Justice project brings together academic scholars, representatives of the public, and all sectors in the justice community to develop methods that measure and analyze – in legal, economic and social terms – the costs of providing or, alternatively, not providing access to justice. The outcomes of this project will have direct implications for access to justice policy and practices in the courts by the legal profession, the broader justice community, and socio-legal scholarship throughout Canada.
The important need for this research has been recently recognized by the Chief Justice of Canada, who – when referring to the Cost of Justice project – stated, “This research … by the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice will be essential in helping us understand the true extent of the problem of cost and how it impacts on the justice system. I believe that it will prove to be of great assistance to … identify concrete solutions to the problem of access to justice” (Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., 2011).
The objectives and research of the Cost of Justice project are key to discovering the extent of the access to justice problem in terms of costs, and finding new, creative solutions to improve access to justice in Canada.
To find out more about the exciting and innovative research happening at the CFCJ, visit www.cfcj-fcjc.org.