Category Archives: Uncategorized

B.C. Supreme Court confirms children’s right to have their voice heard in family dispute

In the recent case of S.S.C.M v. A.C.W., 2024 BCSC 1694, Mr. Justice Morley refused to recognize a Texas court’s order that the children reside in Texas (rather than their current home of B.C.) on the basis, in part, that: The Texas Order principally at issue here was made without hearing the Children’s views. Having […]

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FJIL is seeking new Board members

Do you want to help make the BC family justice system work better for families and children? Family Justice Innovation Lab Society (FJIL), a BC registered society, is seeking people who are excited about this goal to join its Board of Directors. We are committed to advancing access to justice for families, children and young […]

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FJIL Seeking Project Coordinator for the new Youth Participation Expansion Project

Exciting news from the Family Justice Innovation Lab Society! FJIL (through its Youth Voices initiative) and the Transform the Family Justice System Collaborative have jointly received funding from the Representative for Children and Youth to create the Youth Participation Expansion Project. We are looking for a part-time contract Project Coordinator to work with us to […]

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Access to Justice Week BC 2023

BC’s Access to Justice Week begins on February 4th! This is a great opportunity to find out more about A2J and initiatives across the province and country. Click here for a list and description of the many interesting events planned for this year. Thank you for your support for Access to Justice in BC! BC […]

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BC Child & Youth Champions Event

This March, the members of the Youth Voices Leadership Group are participating in a two-part virtual event hosted by Access to Justice BC and the Representative for Children and Youth of BC. The Child & Youth Champions event is part of the multi-sector Transform the Family Justice System (TFJS) Collaborative that is focusing on achieving […]

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Collaborating with our Northern Ireland Colleagues on Human-Centred Design

In the summer of 2019, the Lab received a very warm invitation to work with a group from Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Led by Professor Gráinne McKeever, the group was eager to use a human-centred design process as part of their research project to create and test supports for litigants in person (“LIPS”) in […]

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The Story of the BC Family Justice Innovation Lab

Almost two years ago, our Lab received a wonderful invitation to contribute a paper to a Special Edition of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice focusing on “access to justice & innovation”.  Jane Morley QC and I (with help from many others who kindly read and re-read the article) dove into the task of […]

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Seeking input from Kamloops families to improve the BC family justice system

The Lab is involved in supporting a new initiative which is seeking participation from family members in Kamloops, BC.  The initiative seeks to improve the BC family justice system by starting with an exploration of the experiences of families who have used the system to deal with separation and divorce. The team will be in […]

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What skills and attitudes do we need for justice system change?

Our friends at Nesta have been working on a new competency framework to define the key skills, attitudes and behaviours that public sector innovators combine in order to successfully solve public problems.  Check out this wonderful post for more details. This is difficult work.  I was heartened to see confirmation of the various “tensions” that […]

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Unbundling: Announcing the New BC Family Toolkit & Roster!

Our friends at Mediate BC are excited to announce two important milestones in its unbundled legal services adventure (in partnership with Access to Justice BC): Publication of a Toolkit for Lawyers and Paralegals (version 1.0); and An invitation to receive more information about the BC Family Unbundling Roster The Toolkit version 1.0 During the surveys […]

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