The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ) at Osgoode Hall Law School has been dedicated to access to justice research and advocacy since it first opened its doors seventeen years ago. In keeping with this mandate, CFCJ Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Albert Currie, recently released an evaluation report on the Halton Community Legal Services’ (HCLS) Legal Health Check-Up (LHC) pilot project; an initiative aimed at improving access to legal information and legal aid for persons with justiciable problems.
The LHC pilot project was borne from efforts to overcome unmet legal needs in South Western Ontario and combines two main components: the first is a series of partnerships between intermediaries and the clinic which are facilitated by HCLS’ standing within Ontario’s community clinic system; the second element is a tool to assist the intermediaries in carrying out two “gateway” roles of problem spotting and making legal referrals. This component is crucial given that people often do not recognize the legal aspects of the problems they face in their day-to-day lives. Individuals typically do not know where to go for help and do not think anything can be done. Consequently, many people will not seek help until the situation is desperate.
As documented in Dr. Currie’s report, intermediaries were key to the success of this pilot project. Through HCLS, they were equipped with the knowledge and tools to identify legal (or potentially legal) problems, respond, and then connect the persons experiencing these problems with the right resources. In the context of this pilot project, Halton’s community-based intermediaries were represented through a number of professions and roles. They are individuals who, in their normal professional mandate, are privy to conversations and exchanges that involve the details of legal and non-legal problems. This includes pastors and church officials in an advisory role, staff in the healthcare sector, multicultural service agency staff, employment agency counselors, and other individuals working in a consultative capacity.
Dr. Currie indicates in his evaluation that there is a naturaland logical basisfor the partnerships between intermediaries and HCLS. Through discussions with both legal clinic staff and community residents, intermediaries gain exposure, understanding, and a greater perspective of the nature of everyday legal problems. Their role also offers them insight into the ways that problems cluster, as well as how non-legal and legal problems overlap. For many intermediaries, the LHC project also demonstrated that legal problems are not exclusive to the domain of courts and lawyers but rather, they are a part of daily life, and by extension, the areas in which they work and provide assistance. The intermediary partnership approach is a means of outreach that assists with legal aid delivery.
Outreach has increasingly become recognized as an important tool that contributes to identifying legal issues experienced by the general public, and for addressing legal needs. This approach is based on findings from present-day legal problems research that indicate a high prevalence of serious legal problems amongst the public that are often not recognized as legal in nature, and for which many individuals do not seek help until the situation deteriorates.
The partnership approach contributes to the integrated and holistic nature of the HCLS delivery model, two facets of legal aid delivery that are now recognized as essential for the legal needs of the public to be met effectively. Achieving this means that clinic lawyers and community legal workers have to become what one intermediary described as “a new kind of lawyer,” one who is prepared to go beyond the law to understand the complexity of poverty and deal with the reality of the lives of the disadvantaged.
Following the pilot phase of the project, the LHC is moving in both internal and collateral directions. Internally, more intermediary partners are being brought in to the network of access to justice services that are increasingly available through the LHC project. In addition, a web-based, supported self-help approach is being developed to assist both intermediaries and the larger numbers of clients requesting assistance.
The HCLS model is being adopted by three neighbouring clinics: in Hamilton, Guelph Wellington, and Brant Haldimand Norfolk. Rather than simply replicating the model developed by the Halton clinic, the three clinics recognize that innovation necessitates an adaptation of the project to their respective communities and needs. The key is not the LHC tool, but rather the conversation that the tool initiates between intermediaries and clients.
The expansion to the three neighbouring clinics promises an important new step in the continuing learning process. HCLS will also continue to develop and refine their model. The Guelph, Brant, and Hamilton legal aid clinics will undoubtedly develop a wealth of knowledge as they explore legal needs and community capacity in the three different locations.The exchange of information and the lessons learned among the four legal aid clinics will add an important dimension to the development of the intermediary partnership/legal health check-up approach and expanding access to justice.
Read Dr. Albert Currie’s full report on the Pilot Phase of the Legal Health Check-Up Project at: legalhealthcheckup.ca.
This is a revised version of an article by Ab Currie, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow Canadian Forum on Civil Justice