At a recent conference in Montreal, individuals and organizations involved in access to justice across the country gathered to present current research, share initiatives, and build a strong foundation of knowledge. The conference was grounded in a people-centred approach to access to justice, shaped in part by the OECD Framework and Good Practice Principles for People-Centred Justice.[1] Within this approach there is a common understanding that if we are to improve access to justice we need to include, and in fact, elevate, the voices of those attempting to access justice, both in terms of their challenges, and their experiences. This is neither a radical nor new realization (in fact the NSRLP was founded in 2013 on research into SRLs’ experiences). Over the past decade, many researchers and access to justice activists have called for research that prioritizes the justice system users’ voice. However, despite this call, user-based research is not undertaken as often as it should be.
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A Little Rigour Can Go a Long Way… Reflecting on Research Methods in Access to Justice
