About

Canada’s “Access to Justice” Problem

Canada has an “access to justice” problem. The JDD Lab is part of the solution.

Research shows:

most Canadians will experience a legal problem in a three-year period.
most people will take steps to try and resolve their problems.
of those who try and solve their problem, only half will succeed.
of those who resolve their problem, only half will feel the outcome was fair¹.

We also know that people do not see their problems as “legal” problems. Instead, they see them as “life” problems: problems with their work, their housing, and their neighbors.

These are the problems people carry around from day to day. The problems have a kind of “weight” that hangs heavy on people’s lives. Problems like:

An online purchase that – when it comes – is not at all what we ordered. We want to return it, but the company makes it seem impossible.

A landlord who we know rarely returns a damage deposit, and who does not return ours when we end our tenancy with them. We think we deserve to have it returned, but we do not know how to make sure that happens.

These are problems that do not necessarily need to be resolved in court, but they still have a legal element. The law, and the justice system, can help.

JDD Lab’s Goal

The JDD Lab’s goal is to help people resolve these “everyday” legal problems. We use data and data analysis to learn what problems are affecting the most people and what help people are asking for to resolve them. Once we identify one of these opportunities to help, our teams build a prototype that can help.

We bring fresh eyes and skillsets to the access to justice problem. The JDD Lab builds interdisciplinary teams of university students who work on the Research Engine and Prototyping. We regularly share updates on our data and our prototypes.

Trevor C. W. Farrow and Lesley Jacobs, The Justice Crisis: The Cost and Value of Accessing Law (Vancouver, UBC Press: 2020) at 11. ↩︎