We are pleased to announce that Justice Nancy Key is NSRLP’s latest Access to Justice All-Star!
Justice Key was appointed to Prince Edward Island’s Supreme Court in 2013. She first worked with Julie and the NSRLP as a contributor to our SRL Primer, “Working with Self-Represented Litigants: Ideas and Suggestions from the Bench”, along with four other judges from across Canada.
Justice Key has described working with self-represented litigants as an important – and welcome – part of her job as a judge: “I love the selfers. They are for the most part …frightened, and just want to get the process over with”.
Justice Key is dedicated to improving access to justice in PEI. She believes that it is critical to make the family law process more understandable and accessible, including adopting more everyday language in the experience. Her empathy for litigants is clear from this statement, made at her swearing in as a family court judge in November 2013:
“While you as lawyers and we as judges have many, many files in front of us, it is critical that we remember that the litigants that we represent and judge have only one file in their lives – their own.”
Justice Key has long supported the use of alternative dispute resolution methods in PEI. While a practising lawyer, she was a leading member of Collaborative Practice PEI, Mediation PEI, and Family Mediation Canada.
The Honourable David H. Jenkins, Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island, had the following to say of Justice Key:
“As a family law lawyer in private practice, Nancy Key Q.C. was always ahead of the curve in her approach to dealing with self-represented litigants. The underlying theme, I believe, is that Nancy was perceptive of peoples’ needs as parents and former spouses. She accommodated their fear of the unknown court process, their unease, and especially their need to tell their story. This approach nurtured mutual respect and opportunity for resolution.
Nancy has maintained this approach as a judge. She actually seeks out pre-motion days, where she can assist many people by speaking with them about their rights and obligations, and seek to build their confidence in the court process. Now, within our Rules Committee, Justice Key is applying her special experience and deft touch to the challenge posed by the “selfers” as Nancy calls them, by leading the group charged with making the family rules more easily understood and user friendly.”
Congratulations, Justice Key!
Becky Robinet, NSRLP Research Assistant
Such a blessing that not everyone will ever understand. We just ask for “human beings” to be earth angels and shine wherever the opportunities arise because “the poor and less fortunate “ will always be on earth and needs justice just as much as those in high places. Blessed are the peacemakers who believes in mediation
Musharraf
This is an awesome example to serve humanity. The earth angels and shine always keep them forward to serve Humanity. I would like to quote Ontario Superior Court Justice D.M. Brown. He said that the country’s courts were becoming “only open to the rich.” There are angles by grace of God. We must be thankful to this natural phenomena to fight the nuisance.