Written by Ilana Luther and Emily Tallon, Project Coordinator and Project Director of NSRLP East; originally published on Slaw, Canada’s online legal magazine.
We are very happy to announce that the National Self-Represented Litigants Project has opened an East Chapter (NSRLP-E) to serve and advocate for the needs of self-represented litigants (SRLs) in Atlantic Canada. While we have only just begun the Project, our staff and students have been preparing directories of services for all the Atlantic Provinces, primers, public legal education materials, and case summaries.
Importantly, our students are hard at work reaching out to SRLs and writing reports that will help guide our work on the needs and experiences of SRLs in Atlantic Canada.
For example, one of our researchers recently published a report on Understanding the Experiences of Self Represented Litigants in Nova Scotia, analyzing qualitative data from SRLs in the province. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report details how SRLs reported feeling scared, overwhelmed, and confused in court. SRLs reported feeling alienated in a system that promised them justice, and they felt that processes and procedural rules were needlessly complicated.
While some chose to represent themselves because of negative experiences with lawyers, others represented themselves out of necessity due to the high costs of representation. Several SRLs reported being denied legal aid because they did not qualify financially, or because there was no legal aid available for the area of law for which they needed assistance. But some reported simply not being able to find a lawyer who would agree to represent them, or who practised a particular area of law.
In rural Atlantic Canada in particular we are facing a crisis of attrition in the law practice. In Lunenburg County, for example, anecdotal data indicates that over the past decade the county has seen 22 lawyers retire or leave the area, to be replaced by only 5 new lawyers (in a county with currently 58 practising lawyers). In the whole of Labrador, we have heard that there are only a handful of private lawyers. In rural areas, even where there are lawyers available, they may be conflicted out of matters or have little to no experience in a needed area of law, such as immigration.
Furthermore, both our qualitative data and case law summaries indicate that SRLs are being denied state-funded counsel in criminal courts because they are perceived to be able to represent themselves. In one 2019 case, R. v. Marr, Indigenous defendants were unable to sufficiently articulate their aboriginal or treaty right defense to make a case for the assistance of state-funded counsel.
Importantly, our report, Understanding the Experiences of Self Represented Litigants in Nova Scotia, highlights that not only do SRLs report feeling that their outcomes are unjust, they report being traumatized by the actual process of representing themselves in court. One major finding from the analysis of this first voice data is that almost 50% of participants indicated that they experienced personal trauma as a main theme in their story. This was more likely if an SRL identified as being a member of an equity-seeking group.
Indeed, in analyzing the data, our researcher found that Indigenous SRLs were more likely to experience trauma as a theme of their legal proceedings than persons who identified as not belonging to any equity-seeking group.
This data statistic indicates the importance of implementing a more trauma- and violence-informed justice system in Nova Scotia.
As we continue to understand the needs of SRLs and expand what we know of SRLs beyond the Nova Scotia context, we will soon be publishing an Intake Report of data collected between 2016-2021 looking at the experiences of SRLs in Atlantic Canada as a whole. We have surveyed respondents to analyze who SRLs are (including gender, age, party status, education, ethnicity, income), in which courts they appear, and what type of help or assistance they are seeking.
While it may be expected that SRLs are reporting that they primarily find themselves in the family justice system, small claims court, or administrative tribunals, we are hearing more and more that they are representing themselves in Supreme Court and having to follow complicated Civil Procedure Rules. Nearly three-quarters of respondents indicated they represented themselves in Provincial Supreme Court.
On top of that, approximately half of those surveyed reported they had worked with a lawyer at some point during their case, although most of them reported they were not satisfied with the services they received. Three-quarters of those who worked with a lawyer during their case shared they were not offered unbundled legal services, highlighting another challenge for SRLs who are unable to afford legal counsel for the duration of their legal matter. Indeed, the bulk of respondents reported an annual income below $50,000 (30% reported an income of $30,000-$50,000, and 37% reported an income under $30,000). Additionally, 63% of respondents indicated that they sought out unbundled legal services without success.
To help mitigate the challenges facing SRLs, one project we are working on is reaching out to lawyers in Atlantic Canada who are willing to offer affordable assistance in the form of unbundled legal services or limited scope services. The NSRLP website provides a growing National Directory of Professionals Assisting SRLs where SRLs can search for a lawyer or resources within their city or province. If you are a lawyer in Atlantic Canada wishing to be added to the directory, please fill out the National Directory Sign-up Form. For lawyers considering offering unbundled legal services, the National Self Represented Litigants Project offers a helpful resource: The Nuts & Bolts of Unbundling.
Finally, if are in Atlantic Canada and are representing yourself in a legal matter, we want to hear from you! We are looking for participants and SRLs to fill out our Needs Assessment so we can continue to understand where to focus our work moving forward, and how to best support SRLs in Atlantic Canada. The Needs Assessment can be found here.
Wonderful.
Should that be east or Atlantic? I understand East to be ONTARIO AND QUEBEC (then there is Central and West and trust me, the court culture is separate and different in each of these areas of Canada
My apologies. I did not realize there was NRSLP West. That being said, these are Federally Appointed Justice’s and we are all Canadians. When one Canadians Charter Rights are violated, every Canadians Charter Rights are violated.
I can only speak to my experience in Alberta. Tampered evidence used by a Honourable Justice who actively engaged a Lawyer in multiple ex parte communications. Ex Parte legal advice requested and given by the Honourable Justice. At least three Lawyers colluded or were duped in to assisting this individual in the seizure and sale of my property. False Affidavits are knowingly witnessed and submitted with no consequences. Unscrupulous Lawyers and Ex-Lawyers (Justice’s) have forever tainted the Canadian Judicial System for their personal profit. Not an allegation, but a solid factually and documented experience.
what robert is saying is also what i encountered, evidence is frauded, and submitted to the court in that manner, judges know when files are transferred to another court without the proper documents, that it has not been served on the other party,, but as was done in my case, they rule against you for not being there,, when you have not been served. The courts have now been provided with an expert evidence review, in my case, and are disregarding it. So, it is fraud,, they accepted it anyway,, and then buried it. with no intent of having it show up again. This is all done with the knowledge of the judges who are involved. Why this organization is expanding to ask the same questions over and over,, and finding the same behaviors over and over,, defeats me. You seem to be wasting time and effort. I have actually been told,, the court has no interest in the fraud in my case, even though they know it is there, because they are angry with me. How about that, justice is dependent on how the courts “feel”.
I shall provide an update for anyone that is interested. Both a contact in the Alberta Attorney General’s Office and a member of the RCMP confirmed taking this matter to the Edmontom Police Service was the correct course of action. Except the Edmonton Police Service refuses to even accept evidence let alone examine the evidence. It is my belief the Honourable Justice’s have a reach well beyond the Courtroom if they are implicated in crime. We know we have a Prime Minister who cannot be investigated, we have Honourable Justice’s that cannot be investigated and we now have the Deferred Prosecution available for CEO’s. It has now migrated to Lawyers. Hopefully mechanics, plumbers, and carpenters will soon be granted immunity as well.
What I have, and am, experiencing as former barrister, is simply incredible. It is not justice, nor access to it. A very traumatic experience indeed.
I am currently involved in a civil claim against a Billionaire and the ruthlessness of him and his lawyer’s has been traumatic and caused significant harm. The tactics (I do not use this word lightly) administered against a person who has never studied civil procedure nor litigated a day in his life finds the process much to nuanced in nomenclature, forms and trap doors that only on the “inside” know heads from tails.
And the courts themselves and those that administer them from the Justices downward are indeed very impatient with SRL’s. This is not justice, nor access to it. Sad state of affairs that I truly home this organization, and it’s reports, get in the hands of decision makers to fix the tilting of the scales towards litigious litigants with questionable morals and practices.