CRIMES, COURTS, AND COMMENTARY
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all geared to the criminal law student community.
all geared to the criminal law student community.
3/4/2022 0 Comments Access to Justice – A Perspective from a Community Legal Clinic Student CaseworkerCLSA Staff Writer*
Coming into law school with a background in criminology and Canadian criminal justice, I was no stranger to this issue. In fact, I entered law school with the goal of developing a solution to this problem or, at least, to help alleviate this problem. As a University of Toronto Faculty of Law student, I have had many opportunities to work towards my access to justice goals, even before becoming a lawyer. The main opportunity that I have had, and that I would like to share my experiences about, is working with Downtown Legal Services (DLS) as both a summer student caseworker and as a part-time, for credit, caseworker throughout academic year. Just How Bad is Access to Justice in Canada
DLS & Access to Justice
DLS performs two functions: (1) it is a community legal clinic, and (2) it operates as a clinical education program.[9] Law students are given the responsibility to engage in legal work under the supervision of staff lawyers. DLS provides legal services within six areas of law: housing, employment, family, criminal, refugee and immigration law, and university affairs (within the University of Toronto). These legal services are comprised of law students conveying their staff lawyer’s advice about the law and the client’s potential options, undertaking negotiations with the adverse party, or acting as agent at court appearances, etc. DLS’ services are free of charge. Most of the clients are low-income individuals, as DLS uses Legal Aid Ontario’s financial eligibility criteria to determine if clients are eligible.[10] With that being said, individuals who receive social assistance will meet DLS’ financial criteria. Similarly, levy-paying University of Toronto students are exempt from the clinic’s financial eligibility criteria. Outside of assisting individual clients, DLS also engages in public legal education. DLS’ public legal education that entails plain language workshops on legal topics which is presented to community agency staff and clientele.[11]
My work as a caseworker has solely been within the Criminal Law and University Offences division. From the criminal law side. I mostly assist clients who have been charged with summary conviction offences (less ‘serious’ offences such as a basic assault or theft). From the university offences side, I assist clients who have been charged with any academic offence, whether it be plagiarism, unauthorized aid, forgery, etc. Working at DLS has come to make me realize that access to justice issues, at least within the greater Toronto area, are much worse than I had initially thought. Experiencing a legal issue can be one of the stressful events to ever occur in one’s life. It is truly unfortunate that when these individuals turn to the justice system to seek help and advice, they are often left with nothing. This lack of access to justice is even more concerning because it mostly affects those who are most in need of legal services. It is the people who face access to justice problems (like DLS’ clients) – the marginalized, the systemically oppressed, the ones who have immigrated from other countries with no money or family, the ones with mental health issues, the ones with disabilities, the ones who cannot read, write, or speak English – that are in most need of a justice system that is open and willing to help. Practically every client that I worked with at DLS has experienced some set of access to justice issues:
The importance of access to justice in these two areas of practice are evident. Individuals charged with University Offences are facing barriers to their education, which can lead to severe long-term impacts to their life. The Criminal Law clients are often facing the consequences of a criminal record, which are even more severe. Not only has working at DLS enabled me to experience, first-hand, the access to justice needs within the greater Toronto area (and within the UofT Community), DLS has also taught me a great deal about systemic societal barriers that likely contribute to a lack of access to justice. In addition to my caseworker experience, I am also required to attend DLS classes each week, as required by all part-time caseworkers for academic credit. Besides the general classes that focus on caseworker training, DLS also uses these class opportunities to invite guest speakers to provide students with insight to legal issues. Some of the more notable guest speaker sessions that I have attended were workshops that centred around serving indigenous communities, learning about the systemic barriers that they face on a day-to-day basis, and how to best recognize these barriers when providing service to our indigenous clients. It is because of these invaluable educational sessions that I have been able to further my understanding about access to justice issues. As a future lawyer, this knowledge will certainly serve me well both in my practice, and as I navigate the justice system to find solutions to better Canada’s access to justice issues. Conclusion In conclusion, access to justice is a Canadian-wide issue. As demonstrated from the statistics above, this issue affects many more people than one would initially believe. As someone who is passionate about this issue and who strives to one day provide a solution to this problem, my experience with DLS has been invaluable. Not only has it given me first-hand experience with access to justice issues (outside of reading and hearing about it online and over social media), but it has also equipped me with knowledge and skills to alleviate these issues as a future lawyer. With that being said, I can confidently say that DLS has been the most rewarding aspects of my law school experience, and I will always be thankful for the lessons it has taught me. *This article has been anonymized to allow for a frank discussion of access to justice policy problems without the risk of prejudicing potential Crown employment. Further Reading on access to justice:
End notes:
[1] Michael Trebilcock, Anthony Duggan & Lorne Sossin, eds, Middle Income Access to Justice (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012). See also Trevor C W Farrow, “What is Access to Justice” (2014) 51: 3 Osgoode Hall Law J at 8. [2] Hon Thomas A Cromwell, “Access to Justice: Towards a Collaborative and Strategic Approach” (2012) 63:1 UNBLJ 38 at 39. See Also Farrow, supra note 1 at 8—9. [3] See Canadian Bar Association Access to Justice Committee Final Report, Reaching Equal Justice: An Invitation to Envision and Act (Ottawa: Canadian Bar Association, 2013). See also Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, Access to Civil & Family Justice: A Roadmap for Change (Ottawa: Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, 2013). [4] Ibid. [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] Ibid. [8] Ibid. [9] Downtown Legal Services, “About Us” (2022), online: Downtown Legal Services University of Toronto Faculty of Law <http://downtownlegalservices.ca/about-us/> [10] Downtown Legal Services, “People we Can Help” (2022), online: Downtown Legal Services University of Toronto Faculty of Law <http://downtownlegalservices.ca/people-we-can-help/> [11] Downtown Legal Services, “Community Outreach” (2022), online: Downtown Legal Services University of Toronto Faculty of Law <http://downtownlegalservices.ca/community-outreach/>
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