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The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Community Legal Clinics and Pro Bono Legal Services in Ontario

“IMPORTANT NOTICE: In light of COVID-19, we have moved to telephone only.” Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, community legal clinics, pro bono services, and other legal service providers have updated their websites with similar notices. The pandemic has prompted major changes to the delivery and focus of pro bono and legal clinic services

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COVID, Tech, and the Legal System

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the court system in Canada was plagued by long wait times and constant delays. The pandemic brought new public health orders discouraging in-person proceedings, and so much of the Canadian court system moved online. Different courts reacted to the pandemic in different ways, but there is no court for which the

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A One-Stop-Shop for Civil Access to Justice

Introduction: Access to justice has been defined in a variety of ways and often encompasses a breadth of issues. The definition provided by Community Legal Education of Ontario (CLEO) is as follows: “access to justice exists when people can pursue their goals and address their law-related problems in ways that are consistent with fair legal

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Ten Steps Forward on the Way to Justice for All

Introduction Change is happening on access to justice. While not a new concept, the idea of improving access to justice has taken on new significance in recent years. As discussed at Global Week for Justice and collaborative Access to Justice Week , the work toward providing justice for all is not finished. But we are

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Costly justice: Why communities in Sierra Leone turn to paralegals instead of Local Courts to resolve their justice problems

An estimated 70% of Sierra Leoneans depend on Local Courts for the resolution of justice problems such as child and spousal support, property, tenancy, and land disputes. However, emerging research findings suggest communities are shifting away from the State backed Local Court system, to paralegal organizations. In this blog, we explain the three main factors

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Paralegals, community agency and access to justice in Sierra Leone

Introduction This blog discusses emerging findings from research on access to justice which confirm a long-held view that paralegals support social cohesion and help fill gaps in Sierra Leone’s justice system. These findings are from a three-country research effort, supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa and the International Development and Research Centre

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