access to justice
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Local Circumstances
The Supreme Court has delivered its ruling this morning in the dispute about the ability of a party to submit exhibits in French into evidence in cases before the courts of British Columbia. In Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie‑Britannique v. British Columbia, 2013 SCC 42, it holds, by a bare 4-3 majority, that exhibits submitted for the truth Continue reading
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Legal Self-Services, Part Deux
Just a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the impact of a “self-service mentality” on the legal profession. This mentality, I suggested, is part of what explains the surge in self-representation. Josh Blackman, of South Texas College of Law, says something similar in a blog post, but his perspective is different and more optimistic. Prof. Blackman points Continue reading
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Legal Self-Services
Jim Gardner, of SUNY Buffalo, has an interesting post at The Faculty Lounge, arguing that [t]he capacity to acquire information, shop, travel, and do almost anything without human intermediation is conceived as a right, or at least a new baseline norm. Insistence upon the necessity of human interaction as a condition for completing a transaction Continue reading
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In an Unknown Language
It is not every day, or even every month, that courts get to quote and discuss a statute enacted in the reign of Edward III. But the BC Court of Appeal did just that in an interesting decision it issued last week, in the case of Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie-Britannique v. British Columbia, Continue reading
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Don’t Try This at Home
I had missed this story when it came out, but better late than never. The CBC reports on the work of a Windsor Law professor, Julie Macfarlane, according to whose estimation “up to 80 per cent of people in family court and 60 per cent in civil cases represent themselves.” This is is, as she says, Continue reading
Double Aspect 