Family Justice Reform Projects
Justice Services Centre Pilot Projects
A Justice Services Centre provides people with information, advice, guidance and other services they require to prevent and solve their legal problems as early as possible. These might include legal issues such as debt, consumer, housing and any other civil or family law matter.
This vision flows from recommendations of the B.C. Family Justice Reform Working Group and the B.C. Civil Justice Reform Working Group. Both groups recommended that information and service "centres" be established, based on the recognition that:
- the lack of services and the failure to coordinate existing services makes it difficult for people to use the justice system;
- providing information and services early is the best way to help people prevent legal problems from arising and to resolve problems quickly when they do occur.
Justice Services Centres will help people solve their legal problems by providing a variety of services and tools, including:
- a central source of legal information,
- an assessment service to diagnose the problem and provide referrals to appropriate services,
- coordination and promotion of legal-related services; and
- access to legal advice and representation.
The Ministry of Attorney General and the Legal Services Society (LSS) opened the first family hub, the Nanaimo Family Justice Services Centre in April 2007. The family Justice Services Centre offers a range of services to families undergoing separation and divorce, including dispute resolution, limited legal advice, self-help resources and information, needs assessment and referral and more.
A Civil Hub Project was launched in March 2006 with a research project that produced a needs assessment based on a review of existing reports and interviews with over 60 key informants in potential pilot sites. The purpose of the research was to obtain information about the nature of civil legal problems, their prevalence and scope, typical paths of entry to service and the possible ways a hub service could address civil legal needs (such as debt, consumer, housing and any other civil matter in the courts).
The Report was widely circulated and a facilitated consultation session was held with key stakeholders on May 30, 2007. The researchers have prepared a service vision flowing from that consultation session that is included in the last section of their report, which was finalized and circulated in June 2007. Click here [PDF] to see the final report.
While the ministry and LSS are taking a leadership role in the development, implementation and operation of the Justice Services Centre, participation of other organizations providing justice services is essential if the Centres are going to be able to offer a full range of services. Consultations to date have emphasized the need to build on the range of existing services and for the Justice Services Centres to play a role in coordinating and, in some cases, integrating those services to meet clients' needs. |
