A Legal Needs Survey in the Province of Saskatchewan: Perspectives of Lawyers and Legal and Non-Legal Service Providers

View Full Report

Despite recent developments in data collection and research efforts to improve access to justice in Canada (see Currie, 2009, 2006; Farrow, 2014; Farrow et al., 2016; McLachlin, 2011; Savage & McDonald, 2022), there is still a deficit in data and research addressing legal needs and access to justice issues in the province of Saskatchewan. While the latest national legal needs surveys in Canada targeted residents in each of the 10 provinces (Farrow et al., 2016; Savage & McDonald, 2022), Saskatchewan residents have made up a rather small proportion of the total sample (e.g., representing 3.1% in Farrow and colleagues’ 2016 study). Therefore, findings from national surveys are not detailed enough to inform policy and programming specific to Saskatchewan’s access to justice issues and legal needs. To that end, the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law, CREATE Justice, and Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science and Justice Studies (CFBSJS) conducted a research project that sought to design and administer a Saskatchewan-based legal needs survey to assess the justice-related problems, legal needs, and barriers to access to justice within communities in Saskatchewan. Two survey instruments, broadly referred to as the 2021-2022 Saskatchewan Legal Needs Survey, were designed to assess Saskatchewan communities’ legal needs and accesses to justice issues from the perspective of those who provide justice-related support and services (i.e., lawyers and representatives of communitybased organizations). Taken together, the primary focus of this report was to present and discuss findings from Saskatchewan’s 2021-2022 Legal Needs Survey. 

View Poster

A cross-sectional research design was used to assess (practicing or non-practicing) lawyers’, as well as legal and non-legal service providers’ (i.e., representatives of community-based organizations), perceptions of the access to justice issues and priority legal needs of individuals and communities in Saskatchewan. The 2021-2022 Saskatchewan Legal Needs Survey is comprised of two online self-report questionnaires. One questionnaire was tailored to legal and non-legal service providers (i.e., the Community Agency Survey), whereas the other was tailored to lawyers (i.e., the Lawyer Survey); thus, these groups represent independent samples. In general, these questionnaires asked lawyers and representatives of community-based organizations in the province to reflect on:

• General perceptions of justice-related problems, legal needs, and access to justice barriers
  as it relates to the communities and clients in which they serve.
• Types of justice-related problems and legal needs experienced in their community and by
  their clients (especially community members’ experiences navigating these issues).
• Areas of law most in demand in their community and barriers to accessing services in
  these areas of law.
• Legal and non-legal supports/services most in demand in their community and barriers to
  accessing these supports/services to manage justice-related problems.
• Social groups most in need of legal supports/services in their community and barriers
  these groups encounter when accessing these supports/services.
• Ways to increase access to legal supports and services in their community

A growing body of evidence has shined light on the met and unmet legal needs of populations in several countries across the globe in efforts to elucidate access to justice gaps and, therefore, identify strategies to improve peoples’ experiences navigating justice-related problems. With an estimated 1.4 billion people in the world who experience a justice-related problem and are unable to meet their legal needs (World Justice Project, 2019a, 2019b), this represents a major access to justice problem. The Canadian population is not immune to this issue, as access to justice has been identified as one of the greatest challenges facing the Canadian justice system (Farrow, 2014; McLachlin, 2011). Indeed, several recent national legal needs surveys have suggested that a considerable number of Canadians have unmet legal needs (Currie, 2009, 2006; Farrow et al., 2016; Savage & McDonald, 2022). Accordingly, legal needs surveys are an important tool that helps uncover access to justice gaps by investigating a population’s experience with respect to navigating their legal problems. Findings from these assessments can serve as a guide for governments and various decision-makers in the development of effective justice programs, policies, and services aimed at improving access to justice for Canadians (Savage & McDonald, 2022).

The 2021-2022 Saskatchewan Legal Needs Survey departed from the tradition of past legal needs surveys (i.e., with a people-centred focus) to provide unique insight into justice-related problems, legal needs, and access to justice gaps experienced within Saskatchewan communities. Specifically, we investigated the extent to which lawyers, as well as representatives of (legal and non-legal) community-based organizations, believe individuals and communities in Saskatchewan are able to access the legal and non-legal supports and services necessary to resolve justice-related problems. This was the first legal needs assessment conducted solely in the province of Saskatchewan,117 as well as the first to tap into the knowledge and expertise of those who provide legal and/or non-legal services and support to those facing justice-related problems. Although these professionals are unable to capture the full scope of community members’ experiences (as not everyone faced with a justice-related problem will seek a formal remedy), findings from the current study are relatively consistent with those from user-centred legal needs surveys in Canada and the province of Saskatchewan. This lends support to the notion that soliciting the views of those who provide services to individuals experiencing justice-related problems can add valuable insight into justice system-user needs; thus, providing a more comprehensive understanding of potential avenues to bridge access to justice gaps surrounding legal (and non-legal) services and supports. Future work would benefit from further analyzing this feedback from lawyers and representatives of community-based organizations, alongside the user-focused perspectives on justice-related problems, legal needs, and barriers to access to justice from those who face these issues in Saskatchewan (e.g., Savage, 2022). Such efforts would provide greater context to the current findings.

This study adds to the growing body of legal needs surveys, with particular focus on the legal needs and access to justice issues experienced in the province of Saskatchewan. In particular, lawyers and representatives of community-based organizations reflected on the justice-related problems and legal needs experienced in their communities, as well as the perceived barriers and facilitators surrounding community members’ access to legal and/or non-legal supports and services for these problems. Findings from this study may therefore help inform decision- and policy-makers tasked with developing and evaluating access to justice initiatives in Saskatchewan.