Canadian Forum on Civil Justice Fall 2020 Newsletter

 The non-profit Canadian Forum on Access to Justice (CFCJ) publishes a regular newsletter on access to justice issues.

The latest issue includes news about:

• a report on Measuring the Impact of Legal Service Interventions: "The evidence to understand and assess the effectiveness of legal services delivery in improving access to justice in Canada is sparse.  This makes it difficult for governments, policy makers, funders, legal service providers and the public to know which justice pathways and tools show the most promise in particular scenarios. The “Measuring the Impact of Legal Service Interventions” project seeks to determine the impacts of access to different types of legal services on the outcome of legal disputes and on social, economic, personal and other factors over time (...) ". The first step in the project is a literature review that "explores different methodological considerations for studies concerned with the intersection of process, outcomes and impacts in the delivery of legal services."
• a new published paper The Unintended Benefits of Innovation: The Legal Health Check-Up Revisited that looked at developments at legal clinics in Southwestern Ontario that built partnerships with individuals working at hospitals, employment services and churches to help to identify legal problems and make referrals
• a new paper The Community Being Helped is the Resource that is Needed to Extend Access to Justice to the Community about the role of community service agencies and not-for-profit organisations in helping to identify and address legal needs within underserved areas and among hard-to-reach populations
• a report on Paralegals, community agency and access to justice in Sierra Leone: this is part of a larger multi-country research initiative that seeks to compare the costs, benefits, challenges and opportunities for providing and scaling access to community-based justice services
• and more