Evolving Legal Services Research Project

Community Legal Education Ontario, in partnership with the Institute for Social Research at York University, has undertaken a major research project to examine the effectiveness of public legal education and information (PLEI) in helping low- and modest-income people address their legal problems:

"Canadian jurisdictions, including Ontario and BC, are increasingly exploring and relying on limited legal assistance programs as a method of providing legal services to people who cannot afford legal services. Increased rationing of publicly - funded legal services has meant that public legal education and information (PLEI), either on its own or in conjunction with other unbundled legal services, is required to fill an increasingly larger role in meeting the legal needs of poor people and people with modest means. Yet we know relatively little about the extent to which PLEI is an effective legal service: for what types of clients, for which kinds of legal problems, and in which circumstances, can PLEI provide the most robust assistance. "

"Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) sought and received funding from the Law Foundation of Ontario (LFO) to conduct Phase 1 of a research project – the Evolving Legal Services Research (ELSR) Project – to explore the effectiveness of PLEI throughout the continuum of legal services delivery in Ontario and British Columbia. CLEO has now completed the Phase 1 deliverables – a comprehensive review of the relevant literature and, building on the literature review, a well - developed research plan for Phase 2."

In Phase 2 of the research project, qualitative and quantitative data will be collected over a 19-month period to gather knowledge concerning where PLEI is relied on as a primary form of legal services delivery as well as where PLEI is used in conjunction with other legal services. The idea is to try to zero in on the factors that contribute to PLEI’s effectiveness in supporting positive outcomes in a range of circumstances.

The Phase 1 Review of Current Literature on the topic was compiled for the project by Dr. Melina Buckley.