As we draw closer to the 2014 festive holiday season for many (including Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice…) it is a widely shared tradition to look at what we wish for the coming year.
For some, one traditional practice is the writing a “letter to Santa” describing the gifts that we wish for. In accordance with this particular festive custom, we offer you…..
“A Letter to Santa for Access to Justice in Canada”
We are inviting our friends, colleagues and NSRLP subscribers to contribute to this letter by telling us know what you would like to request from Santa this year, that would advance Access to Justice in Canada.
For example:
Dear Santa,
Please send me some pitchers of milk and a very large plate of cookies for Christmas. I am asking for milk and cookies because everyone sits down together to talk and share ideas together when milk and cookies are on the table, and my wish is for all the stakeholders in the justice system – including the public and SRLs – to sit down and talk about how we work together to advance Access to Justice in Canada.
Sue Rice, Project Manager, NSLRP
Dear Santa,
My wish for Access for Justice in Canada this holiday season is that every lawyer in Canada commit to assisting at least one SRL over the holiday season with unbundled legal services at an affordable hourly rate – and that they enjoy working with a SRL so much that they make this a permanent part of their practice going forward into 2015.
Julie Macfarlane, Project Director, NSLRP
Let us know what you would like to request from Santa as a holiday gift for Access to Justice in Canada by Friday, December 5th.
We shall publish a selection – hopefully from a diverse group of justice system stakeholders, including lawyers, judges, court services staff, policymakers, scholars and of course, self-represented litigants and members of the public – in a Letter to Santa which we shall mail to the North Pole (and social media and press) in December.
Please email your request to Santa to: representingyourself@gmail.com
If you want to tweet it out and invite others to write to Santa, use #a2jwatercooler to encourage the access to justice conversation.
We wish access to justice to all, and to all a good night.
1. What will happen to the SRL Project when there are no more SRL’s? What prominence or purpose will you have? Therefore, you should prepare to serve as the equivalent of the family doctor for law firms, by helping people to find lawyers, i.e., being expert at all parts of the legal infrastructure of lawyers and law firms. Otherwise, there is a suspicion that you want the volume of SRL’s never to get lower, let alone disappear. Right?
2. Why reject the analogy between the need for, and complexity of legal services with medical services?
3. My “Access to Justice” articles of popular & free download:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1398484
— Ken (Ken Chasse), J.D., LL.M., member, LSUC, LSBC.
Dear Santa, I pray for blessings for the good hearted people who continue to advocate for SRLs. Infuse them with an abundance of energy, goodwill and patience. And remember to sprinkle them with mirth. Dom Bautista Law Courts Center