People What people do need is accurate information about legal rights — their own rights, the other person's rights, and their children's rights — finances, and the risks and benefits of the choices they want to make. This information empowers can empower people to resolve their legal issues on their own, and make appropriate and acceptable compromises as needednecessary. People then need certainty that the resolution of decisions they've made resolving their issues will be respected, followed, and enforced if necessary. Many efficient, sensible, and effective alternatives to court exist that can meet these core needs. And many of them are less costly, less stressful, and less time-consuming than going to court. Court is generally only better for highly contentious issuesfamily law problems.

''JP Boyd on Family Law'' is filled with chapters designed to dismantle reduce the barrier to justice that arises from our perception that court is the only valid or the best option:

* [[Resolving Family Law Problems out of Court]], which includes sections about non-court processes and the legal professionals who provide them, such as [[Collaborative Negotiation]], [[Family Law Mediation]], [[Family Law Arbitration]], and [[Parenting Coordination]], and* [[Family Law Agreements]], which provides information on how people can settle their own ongoing or future disputes with minimal involvement by lawyers or courts.

===Legal representation: Cost There are other barriers to family justice as well, of course. The law is complex, often hard to find and funding barriers===often hard to understand. The rules that govern the court system, and the forms the rules require, are also complicated. (These are things ''JP Boyd on Family Law'' tries to address as well.) If you decide that you'd like to hire a lawyer to help guide you through the law and the rules, lawyers' fees can be very expensive and are sometimes out of reach. Even if you can afford a lawyer, there may not be a lawyer near you who specializes in family law.

For those who do end up in court, the stakes can be high, the process can feel intimidating, and having a lawyer by your side can feel like a priority. The cost of hiring a lawyer can be a significant barrier, however. Based on a [https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/features/2021-legal-fees-survey-results/362970 2021 legal fees survey], British Columbians can expect to pay on average more than $6,000 per day for a lawyer's time in trial. Many people simply cannot afford to pay for full legal representation.  You might [https://legalaid.bc.ca/legal_aid/howToApply apply to Legal Aid BC] to see if you qualify for free legal representation, but finite public funding for these services is another barrier. Universal legal aid is not a reality in BCBritish Columbia. You probably won't qualify, for help unless your annual income is below the poverty line and your legal problem is one of the few problems they will help legal aid helps with. Even thenif you do qualify, you won't get a legal aid lawyer to help you with all of your case, just some of it, and only for a limited amount of time.  Apart from legal aid lawyers, Legal Aid BC also runs several services to connect people to [https://legalaid.bc.ca/legal_aid/familyLegalAdvice family law legal advice]. Although these services are even more limited in terms of the number of hours of advice one can get, and while most are still for low-income individuals, you may qualify for these even if you don't qualify for a legal aid lawyer. These programs include:

 There is a vast array of legal information resources, legal clinics, support organizations, online tools and guides, and lower -cost options for retaining hiring legal professionals in BCBritish Columbia. But what are they? Where and when do they operate? Whom do they help? The legal help assistance landscape is badly fragmented. The relative obscurity of some of these services, geographical limitations for some certain services, confusion about eligibility criteria, the lack of an integrated referral process, and the exhaustion many experience from having to retell one's story again and again to different intake workers, all raise barriers to accessing justice.

It's not unusual to have to represent oneself in court. The rates of people without lawyers are as high as 80% in some courts. But being in that position means having to learn about the law and court processes. The laws of British Columbia and Canada are published in print and online, and can be found through the provincial government's [https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/ BC Laws website], from the Canadian [https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/ Department of Justice], or, even better, through the awesome website provided by the [https://canlii.org Canadian Legal Information Institute]. Courthouse Libraries BC also operates library branches in courthouses throughout the province, and the librarians who work there are skilled at helping members of the public locate legislation and other forms of legal information. This wide availability of legal information is a good thing, but the time it takes time to educate yourself is a barrier to justice. Did you do a poor job filling out a legal form because you couldn't make the time to research how to do it well? Did you get a bad outcome as a result? You may have non-negotiable time commitments like kids, a dependent relative, a critical healthcare appointment, or a job that you cannot afford to lose. Your family status, disability, limited economic liberty, etc. — none of this will get you a discount on the It takes time it takes to be an informed self-represented litigant. People , and people sometimes resign themselves to unfair outcomes because they don't have the time to do anything else. The time needed to self-educate and digest information is one of the biggest barriers to justice. ===Complexity barriers=== stopped