Research Database

The Monitor – Can’t Afford the Rent Report

This study examines the gap between the minimum wage and what it costs to rent an apartment in Canada. The rental wage measure provides a clear picture of the relationship between wages and rents because it calculates the hourly wage required to afford rent while working a standard 40-hour week and spending no more than 30 per cent of one’s...

Everyday Problems and Legal Need

This report is the first of three volumes. It explores legal need in Victoria, how justiciable problems are experienced, what people do about them and how they progress and conclude.

Alberta Legal Needs Assessment: What we’ve learned so far

In the Fall of 2022, the Alberta Law Foundation started a community-based legal needs assessment in Alberta to assist with knowledge sharing in the justice sector and help inform grant-making.

This report presents highlights from what the Foundation has learned so far from the Alberta justice community.

The report aims to increase...

Justice Needs and Satisfaction in the United States of America 2021 Legal problems in daily life

This report, produced by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) and HiiL, provides nationwide data from the United States on the justice needs that Americans experience every day. It also discusses how people in the United States resolve their justice needs, as well as what is working and what isn’t, to inform and...

Canada’s Justice Development Goals: 2020: Challenge and Change

This report highlights access to justice efforts across Canada in 2020, according to an established framework for accessible justice in Canada which is revisited annually. This year's report contains a special feature on justice sector responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Projects and data captured in the report are shared on an annual basis...

Digital Evictions: The Landlord and Tenant Board’s experiment with online evictions

This report provides data from 251 online evictions across Ontario convened online from March to May 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report notes a growing digital divide between tenants and landlords in the ability to participate in virtual eviction hearings; less tenants than landlords attended the hearings, and most tenants who...

Tracking the Trends of the Self-Represented Litigant Phenomenon: Data from the National Self-Represented Litigants Project, 2018/2019

This report collates and analyzes data gathered from intake for the National Self-Represented Litigants Project from January 2018 to June 2019. Core demographics – gender, income, education, age etc – of the population of self-represented litigants were tracked, and the results were consistent with studies conducted in other countries.

Also...

Key Findings and Recommendations Report: Needs Assessment 2018: Public Legal Education and Information in Languages Other Than English

This report describes a needs assessment conducted in British Columbia to identify public legal education and information (PLEI) needs for "English as an additional language" (EAL) communities. The needs assessment included a literature review, an analysis of 2016 Census data on immigrant populations, and focus groups and an online survey of...

Indigenous Public Legal Education and Information Final Report and Recommendations – July 2019

This report addresses the existing public legal education and information (PLEI) produced for Indigenous communities in British Columbia, especially about child protection. The research methodology included a literature review and focus groups with Indigenous and other service providers who help Indigenous people with legal problems. It was found...

Online Training for Community-Based Intermediaries: Survey Findings and Implications

This report describes the results from a survey of trusted intermediaries from 120 communities across British Columbia on preferred methods of e-learning and online legal information training. The needs assessment was intended to gauge:

• the preferred type(s) and modes of e-training
• the main delivery considerations (such as...