510
edits
Changes
→...and some partial progress
This is not, of course, to say that nothing is being done. After that flurry of reports in 2013, groups were established in many provinces to pursue the access to justice problem and potential solutions. Some of these efforts have floundered, while others have produced notable successes. We are lucky to live in British Columbia, which seems to be leading the country in experimenting with new programs and different initiatives. The changes that have been made in just the last ten years in British Columbia are really impressive. Here are a few of the steps the court has taken:
*Starting in 2010, the Supreme Court developed rules of court just for family law disputes, and created special forms just for family law disputes that, while complicated, are designed to reduce conflict by taking a fill-in-the-blanks approach;.
*The Supreme Court also expanded the Judicial Case Conference program, so that anyone can schedule a JCC at any time, giving everyone access to a judge who can deal with problems using an approach similar to mediation.
*The Provincial Court has established a new pilot project in the Victoria courthouse that is seeing how a less adversarial approach to trials works.