Presentation by Trevor Farrow made at the OECD Global Policy Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice, 28 March 2019.

1. Measuring Justice:
What’s Next
Trevor C.W. Farrow, Ph.D.
Professor & Associate Dean, Osgoode Hall Law School
Chair, Canadian Forum on Civil Justice
OECD Roundtable
Lisbon, Portugal
28 March 2019

2. Outline
1. Several current projects
2. What’s next
2

3. 1. Several current projects
3

4. Canadian Forum on Civil Justice
Everyday Legal Problems & the Cost of Justice in Canada
<http://cfcj-fcjc.org/a2jblog/everyday-legal-problems-and-the-cost-of-justice-in-canada-0>
• First legal needs study in Canada since 2008
– Telephone survey of 3,051 adults (excludes territories; separate cell survey)
– Asked if people experienced any problems from a list of 84 problem types (e.g. family, housing,
employment, consumer problems, etc.)
– Also asked people to report on costs – both monetary and intangible – incurred as a direct result of
experiencing a problem
• First Canadian study of its kind to measure multi-dimensional
costs of unresolved legal problems
4

5. Studying Family Law DR Processes
(2018)• Survey of 166 lawyers
practicing family law
• Four Canadian
provinces: Alberta,
British Columbia,
Ontario, Nova Scotia
• Four processes:
Collaboration,
Mediation, Arbitration,
Litigation
• Questions about
benefits, limitations,
costs, and suitability
• SROI analysis

6. Community Based Justice Research Project
(2018-2020)
• South Africa, Sierra
Leone, Kenya
• Community based
justice research sites
• CFCJ coordinating
partner
• Supported by IDRC
• Mapping, measuring,
scaling research
• Research driven by
local partners

7. Costing the Justice Gap:
Return on Investment for Justice Services Study
(2019)
• In support of Task
Force efforts
• CFCJ partnership
• Review of “what’s
out there” on ROI
and SROI studies
• Highlights
• Next steps

8. Tracking Impacts of Legal Interventions
(2019-2020)
• First-step study
• Identify partner
clinic and
methodology
• Longitudinal study
• Follow clients
• Track, understand
and measure
interventions
• No control group

9. 2. What’s next
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2. What’s next
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10. What’s next
• Follow up direct and indirect costs studies
- Legal and other costs
- Health
- Social and employment services, etc.
- Housing
- Legal capability, understanding, wellbeing
• Longitudinal impact studies (control or not)
• ROI/SROI studies, etc.
• Measure process, outcomes, quality
• Don’t forget justice

11. Thank you!

12. 3. Further discussion of several studies
(for follow up discussion if necessary)
12

13. Canadian Forum on Civil Justice
Everyday Legal Problems & the Cost of Justice in Canada
<http://cfcj-fcjc.org/a2jblog/everyday-legal-problems-and-the-cost-of-justice-in-canada-0>
• First legal needs study in Canada since 2008
– Telephone survey of 3,051 adults (excludes territories; separate cell survey)
– Asked if people experienced any problems from a list of 84 problem types (e.g. family, housing,
employment, consumer problems, etc.)
– Also asked people to report on costs – both monetary and intangible – incurred as a direct result of
experiencing a problem
• First Canadian study of its kind to measure multi-dimensional
costs of unresolved legal problems
13

14. Legal Problems of Everyday Life
• Approximately 50% of adult Canadians will experience
a legal problem over any given 3-year period
• Approximately 11 million people (per 3-year period)
• Essentially all of us over the course of a lifetime
14

15. Legal Problems of Everyday Life
Within any given 3-year period, adult Canadians
experience approximately 35,745,000 separate everyday
legal problems
15

16. 7%
19%
28%
33%
75%
61%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Courts and
Tribunals
Legal
Advice
Non-legal
Assistance
Internet Other PartyFriends and
Relatives
How Do People Address Their Problems?
16

17. 55%
30%
15%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Resolved Not Resolved Mixed Results
How Many People Resolve Their Problems?
17

18. What do we know about Costs in Canada?
• Private Costs – most frequently reported (CFCJ 2016)
- Lawyers fees
- Transportation
- Purchase of materials, court fees, other advisors and mediators
- Telephone, child care, etc.
• Average hourly lawyer fees (Semple 2015)
- 10 years of experience: $325
- 5 years of experience: $264
- 1 year (or less) of experience: $204
• Time (CFCJ 2016)
- Problems can remain unresolved over several years
• 30% of problems had not been resolved
- Seeking justice can consume hours of peoples’ lives
• “Searching” costs (time finding information)
• Filling out forms, documents, travelling time
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19. Specific Costs
• Canadians spend on average $6,100 to resolve their legal problem
o Almost as much as Canadian households spend on average
annually on food ($7,739) (2012)
o Almost half as much as Canadians spend on average annually
on shelter ($15,811) (2012)
• Individual Canadians spend just over $7.7 billion annually to deal
with everyday legal problems (and likely much more)
• Inability to resolve problems can result in missed opportunities,
income loss (e.g. vacation days, “non-paid” days), etc.
19

20. Justiciable Problems Trigger Health and Social Problems
51% (5.7 million people) report increased stress or emotional
problems as a direct result of a legal problem
2.1%
8.4%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10%
Social Assistance
Loss of Employment
Percent of Respondents
54.5%
45.2%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Physical Health
Emotional Health
Percent of Respondents

21. Annual State-incurred Costs as a Consequence
of Legal Problems …
• Social Assistance: $248 million
- 79,367 people annually
• Employment Insurance: $450 million
- 310,805 people annually
• Health Care: $101 million
- Based on extra annual health care visits resulting from legal problems
• Housing
- 2.7% (100,839) of Canadians lose housing every year
- 3.6% of those (6,836 people) rely on emergency shelters
… and all likely much higher
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22. 2. Family Law:
Comparative preferences and costs –
A recent Canadian study
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23. Small 2017 Canadian family law study
• Survey of 166 lawyers
practicing family law
• Four Canadian
provinces: Alberta,
British Columbia,
Ontario, Nova Scotia
• Questions about
benefits, limitations,
costs, and suitability
for resolving family
law problems
• Four processes:
Collaboration,
Mediation, Arbitration
and Litigation

24. Comparing the 4 processes
 Mediation and Collaboration are viewed as most useful for:
 Low-conflict disputes
 Hearing the voices and preferences of children
 Issues arising after the resolution of a dispute
 Disputes about the care of children and parents
 Child support or spousal support
 Division of property and debt
 Litigation and Collaboration are useful for:
 Hearing the evidence of financial experts and valuators
 Litigation is viewed as most useful for high-conflict and urgent problems involving:
 Risks to an adult or child
 Risks to property
 Allegations of family violence or abuse
 Adult substance abuse
 Mental disorder
 Alienation
 Almost all lawyers who use collaboration or mediation say that they prefer to use those
processes whenever possible
 Most lawyers agree that mediation, arbitration and collaboration are usually cost–effective
 Most lawyers agreed that arbitration and litigation are suited for high-conflict disputes

25. COST
What does it cost to resolve family law problems? Which processes are most cost-effective?
COLLABORATION MEDIATION ARBITRATION LITIGATION
AVERAGE COST TO RESOLVE HIGH
CONFLICT DISPUTES
AVERAGE COST TO RESOLVE LOW
CONFLICT DISPUTES
CONSENSUS THAT THE PROCESS IS
“COST-EFFECTIVE”
$31,140
$600.00
$10,600.00
$20,600.00
$30,600.00
$40,600.00
$50,600.00
$60,600.00
$70,600.00
$80,600.00
$90,600.00
$25,110
$5,000.00
$15,000.00
$25,000.00
$35,000.00
$45,000.00
$55,000.00
$65,000.00
$75,000.00
$85,000.00
$95,000.00
Agree
Neither
Disagree
Agree
Neither
Disagree
Agree
Neither
Disagree
Agree
Neither
Disagree
$40,107
$7,000.00
$17,000.00
$27,000.00
$37,000.00
$47,000.00
$57,000.00
$67,000.00
$77,000.00
$87,000.00
$97,000.00
$6,345
$630.00
$5,630.00
$10,630.00
$15,630.00
$20,630.00
$25,630.00
$6,269
$1,000.00
$6,000.00
$11,000.00
$16,000.00
$21,000.00
$26,000.00
$12,395
$2,000.00
$12,000.00
$22,000.00
$32,000.00
$42,000.00
$52,000.00
$62,000.00
$72,000.00
$12,328
$2,500.00
$7,500.00
$12,500.00
$17,500.00
$22,500.00
$27,500.00
$32,500.00
$37,500.00
$42,500.00
$47,500.00
$54,390
$2,000.00
$12,000.00
$22,000.00
$32,000.00
$42,000.00
$52,000.00
$62,000.00
$72,000.00

26. SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT (SROI) ANALYSIS
• Compare investment made in resolving problems with impact
and outcome
• Factors used to estimate SROI:
o Length of process
o Perceived fairness of outcome
o Satisfaction with outcome
o Potential for future conflict
o Cost to the family justice system
(All recognizing the limits of SROI analyses)

27. Low Conflict Disputes
For every $1.00 input to resolve a low conflict dispute, the SROI is:
Input - Social Value Input - Social Value Input - Social Value Input - Social Value
$16,092
$10,678
$23,843
$21,748
$33,142
$29,716
$13,609
$8,424
Collaboration
SROI
$1 : $2.06
Mediation
SROI
$1 : $2.78
Arbitration
SROI
$1 : $0.57
Litigation
SROI
$1 : $0.39

28. High Conflict Disputes
For every $1.00 input to resolve a high conflict dispute, the SROI is:
Input - Social Value Input - Social Value Input - Social Value Input - Social Value
$34,933 $35,563
$23,843
$21,748
$39,092
$35,666
$13,609
$8,424
Collaboration
SROI
$1 : $1.12
Litigation
SROI
$1 : $0.04
Arbitration
SROI
$1 : $0.38
Mediation
SROI
$1 : $1.00

29. www.cfcj-fcjc.org
Osgoode Hall Law School
communications@cfcj-fcjc.org
Thank You.
Questions?
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