Do we have adequate access to justice? It seems to me that the answer is no. We have wonderful justice for corporations and for the wealthy. But the middle class and the poor may not be able to access our justice system.
—Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin
This is the first Ontario installation of Reasonable Doubt, a legal column exploring access to justice in the Canadian legal system that will appear in NOW online every Monday. It has been published in the Vancouver news weekly The Georgia Straight since 2010.
The group of B.C. lawyers (including yours truly, until recently moving Toronto) behind the column have connected with a group of Toronto lawyers to bring the column east. We each practice in different areas of the law and will bring that expertise to help readers understand and navigate the common legal issues most of us face, including tenancy, family and criminal matters, traffic tickets and insurance disputes. We will also provide commentary on topical legal issues through a progressive lens.
Reasonable Doubt was born out of Canada’s current access-to-justice crisis. Lawyers are expensive and the system is extremely difficult to navigate without one. With Canada’s growing income inequality, fewer and fewer people are able to afford legal protection or enforce their legal rights, often with heart-breaking results.
The average cost of a lawyer in Ontario is $235 to $431 per hour, depending on their experience. The average cost of a two-day trial is over $30,000.
Our courts are increasingly becoming a place for the wealthy and corporations. Ontario’s Chief Justice Winkler describes the problem this way:
… for a large number of ordinary Ontarians, the civil justice system is growing more and more remote. In this ever-expanding group are those who find that the civil justice system is too expensive and too slow to provide them with any real help. Still others decide in advance that the costs, delays and complexities of a lawsuit (or even just early legal advice) are so overwhelming that they should not even bother to seek recourse in the court system. So they simply walk away from their rights they never walk through the door of a lawyer’s office.
An influx of self-represented people trying to make sense of a complicated legal system has created expensive delays in our courts. Trials are often scheduled years into the future.
It is unfair to expect people to navigate our legal system on their own, especially members of vulnerable populations. In many cases, it is tantamount to expecting that someone perform their own surgery. The results can be similarly severe: jail time or a conviction, losing your kids in a custody dispute, being evicted, owing someone a large sum of money, or being cut off from social assistance.
What about legal aid? Legal aid does not cover most legal problems, generally only more serious family and criminal law matters. There are financial requirements and the majority of Canadians do not qualify.
Many lawyers are working to find solutions to access to justice problems – protesting legal aid funding, offering cheaper services (unbundled, task based services), operating on contingency fee arrangements (you don’t win, you don’t pay), or simply offering pro bono work. But the problem is daunting.
Over the coming months, we hope to explore the problems intertwined with our limited access to justice in Canada and hopefully be a small part of the solution.
Joseph Fearon is a personal injury lawyer with Preszler Law Firm LLP. Reasonable Doubt appears on www.nowtoronto.com on Mondays. Follow @JWCFearon on Twitter.
A word of caution: You should not act or rely on the information provided in this column. It is not legal advice. To ensure your interests are protected, retain or formally seek advice from a lawyer. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Preszler Law Firm LLP or the lawyers of Preszler Law Firm LLP.
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