{"id":369,"date":"2006-12-12T14:13:24","date_gmt":"2006-12-12T18:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/12\/12\/canadian-judicial-council-issues-self-r"},"modified":"2006-12-12T14:13:24","modified_gmt":"2006-12-12T18:13:24","slug":"canadian-judicial-council-issues-self-representation-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/12\/12\/canadian-judicial-council-issues-self-representation-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Judicial Council Issues Self-Representation Principles"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, the Canadian Judicial Council<\/a>\u00a0issued a Statement of Principles on Self Represented Litigants and Accused Persons<\/strong><\/a> (2006, 12 pp. pdf), with the goal of fostering equal access to justice and equal treatment under the law for those who appear in court without a lawyer\u00a0(per\u00a0CNW Group press release<\/a>, Dec. 12, 2006).\u00a0 The Statement emphasizes that all participants in the justice system — judges, court administrators, the self-represented, and members of the bar — have important roles to play and responsibilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"courthouse1\"\u00a0 \u00a0Honourable Marc Monnin, Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba,\u00a0and Chairperson of the drafting committee, pointed out that “the Principles are advisory in nature and are not intended to be a code of conduct. However, judges and other participants in the justice system have a responsibility to promote opportunities for all persons to understand and meaningfully present their case, whether or not they have legal representation.”\u00a0\u00a0It is clear that CJC prefers that all parties\u00a0be represented by lawyers,\u00a0but it offers principles to follow if attempts to find representation for all are not successful.<\/p>\n

Below are highlights from the\u00a0Statement (including guidance for the Bar), which contains many more suggests and comments.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

– “Access to justice for those who represent themselves requires that all aspects of the court process be open, transparent, clearly defined, simple, convenient and accommodating.”<\/p>\n

– All self-represented parties should be: “Informed of the potential consequences and
\nresponsibilities of proceeding without a lawyer” and “Referred to available sources of representation.”
\nTo promote equal justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Judges and court administrators should do whatever is possible to provide a fair and impartial process and prevent an unfair disadvantage to self-represented persons [a list of actions permitted to the court, when appropriate,\u00a0is given].
\n– Self-represented persons should not be denied relief on the basis of a minor or easily rectified deficiency in their case.<\/p>\n

– Responsibilities of the participants in the justice system – both justices and court administrators<\/p>\n

– Judges and court administrators should meet the needs of self-represented persons for information, referral, simplicity and assistance.
\n– Forms, rules and procedures should be developed which are understandable to and easily accessed by self-represented persons.
\n– To the extent possible, judges and court administrators should develop packages for self-represented persons and standardized court forms.
\n– Judges and court administrators have no obligation to assist a self-represented person who is disrespectful, frivolous, unreasonable, vexatious, abusive, or making no reasonable effort to prepare their own case.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Self-Represented Persons<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Self-represented persons are expected to familiarize themselves with the relevant legal
\npractices and procedures pertaining to their case.
\n2. Self-represented persons are expected to prepare their own case.
\n3. Self-represented persons are required to be respectful of the court process and the officials within it. Vexatious litigants will not be permitted to abuse the process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the Bar<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Members of the Bar are expected to participate in designing and delivering legal aid and pro bono representation to persons who would otherwise be self-represented, as well as other programs for short-term, partial and unbundled legal advice and assistance as may be deemed useful for the self-represented persons in the courts of which they are officers.<\/p>\n

2. Members of the Bar are expected to be respectful of self-represented persons and to adjust their behaviour accordingly when dealing with self-represented persons, in accordance with their professional ethical obligations. For example, members of the Bar should, to the extent possible, avoid the use of complex legal language. Members of the Bar may be guided by the Canadian Bar Association\u2019s Code of Professional Conduct and the codes of each jurisdiction (see Guiding Principle XIX (8))and references therein.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, the Canadian Judicial Council\u00a0issued a Statement of Principles on Self Represented Litigants and Accused Persons (2006, 12 pp. pdf), with the goal of fostering equal access to justice and equal treatment under the law for those who appear in court without a lawyer\u00a0(per\u00a0CNW Group press release, Dec. 12, 2006).\u00a0 The Statement emphasizes that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[991,898],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-items","category-studies-reports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}