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Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada

Thursday, March 12, 2015

We are pleased to release the first fact sheet from our national legal problems survey, “Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada”.

“Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada” is a national legal-problems survey which assesses the frequency and multi-dimensional costs of everyday legal problems faced by Canadians aged 18 years and older. It is an initiative of the Cost of Justice project.

Completed in 2014 with over 3000 respondents, the survey, led by a research team including Trevor Farrow, Nicole Aylwin, Ab Currie, Sabreena Delhon, Les Jacobs and David Northrup, finds that everyday legal problems are ubiquitous in the lives of adult Canadians. These problems typically have a negative effect on the social and economic wellbeing of individuals and their families, which can potentially lead to lost productivity and considerable expense to publicly funded services and programs.

“Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada” provides critical, measurable insights about the cost of access to justice challenges in Canada. It is the first Canadian study of its kind to explore what everyday legal problems cost Canadians – not just in dollars, but in time and opportunity costs, costs to their physical and mental health, and costs to their livelihood.

The survey is part of the larger 5 year Cost of Justice project, which examines the social and economic costs of Canada’s justice system. It is guided by two questions: What is the cost of delivering access to justice? And, what is the cost of not delivering access to justice? Comprised of leading access to justice researchers investigating the various dimensions of cost across the country, the Cost of Justice project is producing empirical data that will inform the future of access to justice in Canada and abroad.