Shifting the Paradigm: Exploring Opportunities for Community Justice Help

Shifting the Paradigm: Exploring Opportunities for Community Justice Help This report provides a review of recent developments in regulatory action and program activity aimed at improving access to justice through assistance provided by non-lawyers in community-based not-for-profit settings. We call this type of assistance “community justice help”. The purpose of this report is to explore and identify the potential for supporting and expanding the roles for community justice help in Canada. The primary focus of our review is Canada, but recent developments in comparative jurisdictions are also considered. The report identifies some relevant regulatory action with potential to expand the scope for non-lawyer roles in general and community justice help more particularly. It also identifies a significant level of program activity in the realm of community justice help. The report addresses recent developments in regulatory action and program activity from both descriptive and evaluative perspectives. Based on our review of the available evaluative information, we conclude that community justice help is generally of good quality, responding to people’s multifaceted needs, and is no more prone to deficiencies in quality or effectiveness than lawyers’ services. Consequently, this report recommends that next steps in relation to community justice help should aim to support and enable it. 2023-05-17 Department of Justice Canada OG-GO@justice.gc.ca Government and PoliticsHealth and SafetySociety and Cultureaccess to justice; justice system and policy; report; Shifting the Paradigm: Exploring Opportunities for Community Justice HelpHTML https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/ecjh-eamjc/index.html Shifting the Paradigm: Exploring Opportunities for Community Justice HelpHTML https://www.justice.gc.ca/fra/pr-rp/jr/eamjc-ecjh/index.html Shifting the Paradigm: Exploring Opportunities for Community Justice HelpPDF https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/ecjh-eamjc/docs/Shifting_Paradigm_Report_EN.pdf Shifting the Paradigm: Exploring Opportunities for Community Justice HelpPDF https://www.justice.gc.ca/fra/pr-rp/jr/eamjc-ecjh/docs/Shifting_Paradigm_Report_FR.pdf

This report provides a review of recent developments in regulatory action and program activity aimed at improving access to justice through assistance provided by non-lawyers in community-based not-for-profit settings. We call this type of assistance “community justice help”. The purpose of this report is to explore and identify the potential for supporting and expanding the roles for community justice help in Canada. The primary focus of our review is Canada, but recent developments in comparative jurisdictions are also considered. The report identifies some relevant regulatory action with potential to expand the scope for non-lawyer roles in general and community justice help more particularly. It also identifies a significant level of program activity in the realm of community justice help. The report addresses recent developments in regulatory action and program activity from both descriptive and evaluative perspectives. Based on our review of the available evaluative information, we conclude that community justice help is generally of good quality, responding to people’s multifaceted needs, and is no more prone to deficiencies in quality or effectiveness than lawyers’ services. Consequently, this report recommends that next steps in relation to community justice help should aim to support and enable it.

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