CALL/ACBD Webinar - Tribunals for Access to Justice in Canada: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Tribunals for Access to Justice in Canada: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Canada’s tribunals resolve many of the most important and frequently-arising legal disputes, within specialized spheres of jurisdiction assigned by statutes.  Their potential to outperform courts in delivering speedy and accessible justice has long been recognized, and in many cases that potential is realized.  However, some Canadian tribunals today (especially Ontario’s high-volume tribunals) are afflicted by politicization, delay, and endemic miscarriages of procedural and substantive justice.  This discussion will explore tribunals’ promise as a path toward more accessible justice, as well as the pitfalls on this road.  

Speaker 

Noel Semple, Associate Professor

University of Windsor Faculty of Law

In this session, Professor Noel Semple will update CALL/ACBD members on recent research and observations about the significant delays facing litigants at a number of Ontario Tribunals. The session will raise awareness of the importance of tribunals in our justice system, the impacts on litigants, policy and political influences leading to this situation, and the implications on access to justice.

Noel studies access to justice; his work asks how the law and legal institutions work in real life. It also aspires to improve the ability of law and legal institutions to actually create justice. Empirical research and policy analysis are key tools in Noel’s scholarship.   In recent years he has become interested in the potential of Canada’s tribunals to chart a path toward better access to justice in civil disputes of all kinds, including those currently within the jurisdiction of courts. 

Noel teaches and writes in the fields of civil dispute resolution, legal ethics and professionalism, legal services regulation, and family law. He directs the Windsor Legal Practice Simulation, a week-long legal practice simulation in which all Windsor Law 1L students participate. 

*Non-member students will be granted a CALL/ACBD membership when attending this paid webinar.