Professor Laverne Jacobs
This week, Julie talks to her colleague, Dr. Laverne Jacobs, Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor, and Director of the Law, Disabilities and Social Change Project (LDSC). Laverne describes her most recent work, pressing the UN Special Rapporteur on two particularly egregious cases involving litigants left without legal representation, despite disability challenges making representing themselves even more difficult. NSRLP has worked with Laverne on these cases, one of which was featured in a podcast in our very first season (“Catch 22: No Capacity, No Lawyer” with Judy Gayton). Laverne also talks about her personal and professional passion for working on disability rights issues. She has been honoured for her activism a number of times, most recently with the Outstanding Individual Award in the annualWindsor-Essex Accessibility Awards.
Related:
Law, Disabilities and Social Change Project
“Catch 22: No Capacity, No Lawyer”
Laverne wins the Outstanding Individual Award in the annual Windsor-Essex Accessibility Awards
End of Mission Report by UN Special Rapporteur
In which she states:” I would like to remind the federal, provincial and territorial governments that the obligation to provide procedural accommodation to persons with disabilities in all legal proceedings, as established in article 13 of the CRPD, is distinct from the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation, as the first is not subjected to the test of undue hardship.”
Law, Disabilities and Social Change project submission to the UN
UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
99% Invisible episode “Curb Cuts”
In Other News
In other news: the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls recently released its final report; the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba will now offer French language legal education for law students in the form of a full certificate program; finally, NSRLP last week published another article on Slaw.ca, examining the way restrictions have been imposed on self-represented litigants, and arguing that more restrictions will only escalate legal problems further.
Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
Article about Federal Funding for Access to Justice in both languages in Manitoba
NSRLP’s Slaw article on continued attempts to restrict Self-Represented Litigants
Jumping Off the Ivory Tower is produced and hosted by Julie Macfarlane and Dayna Cornwall; production and editing by Brauntë Petric; Other News produced and hosted by Ali Tejani; promotion by Moya McAlister and Ali Tejani.
For myself, I found that judges pay lip service about their obligation to accommodate SRLs with mental disabilities because they don’t “see” my mental disabilities.
I’ve asked for a McKenzie Friend to assist me and was shot down. I asked the court to limit the hearings to run from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM because long sessions tire me out and my concentration tends to wane. The judges didn’t like early conclusion to court hearings which protract the length of a trial. I’ve asked that the opposition lawyer and witnesses speak louder and more slowly but that fell on deaf ears.