Middle Income Access to Justice

'The essays in Middle Income Access to Justice are all major contributions to research - nuanced, attentive to detail, grounded in relevant data sets, and resistant to facile generalizations. This collection will attract foreign as well as domestic interest and will surely find a place on the shelves of law libraries throughout the common law world.' -- Roderick A. Macdonald, Faculty of Law, McGill University 'This is an impressive collection of essays by authors who are pre-eminent in their respective fields of study, on a variety of access to justice problems and possible reforms. A major contribution to a burgeoning literature on access to civil justice in Canada, it will be of interest to judges, academics, social scientists, and policymakers.' -- Jasminka Kalajdzic, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor

Middle Income Access to Justice presents a variety of innovative solutions, from dispute resolution process reforms to the development of non-lawyer forms of assistance and new methods for funding legal expenses

Though most conceptions of the rule of law assume equality before the law – and hence equal access to the justice system – this basic right is not being met for many low and middle income Canadians. This book focuses on the problem of civil access to justice for middle income earners – those whose household income is high enough to disqualify them from legal aid but not high enough to cover the costs of litigation.

Featuring contributions by leading Canadian and international scholars, practitioners, and members of the judiciary, this multidisciplinary collection draws on scholarship in the fields of law, social science, and public policy. There is a particular emphasis on family law, consumer law, and employment law, as these are the areas where research has indicated that unmet legal needs are highest.

Middle Income Access to Justice presents a variety of innovative solutions, from dispute resolution process reforms to the development of non-lawyer forms of assistance and new methods for funding legal expenses. In doing so, it lays the foundation for the development of a much-needed new delivery model to provide early intervention for legal services.