Wed 12 Jun 2019

Mediate BC and 50 Organizations Sign Access to Justice Triple Aim

Posted by Walter.Brynjolfson

This historic joint endorsement, signed yesterday evening, provides a shared frame of reference for Access to Justice (A2J) initiatives across the province.

Despite the countless efforts of many dedicated organizations over the years, the civil and family justice system continues to be overly complex, slow, and expensive in British Columbia.[1] That's why Mediate BC, along with more than fifty justice sector organizations, join the Attorney General and the Chief Justice of BC to endorse the Access to Justice Triple Aim in downtown Vancouver. 

Spearheaded by Access to Justice BC (A2JBC), this Triple Aim has three elements:

1. Improving access to justice on a population level,

2. Improving the experience of individuals with accessing justice, and

3. Improving costs. (see more here)

In all three of these goals, Mediate BC plays an important role. Improving access is about having a range of suitable options depending on what the people and their situation need. As more people turn to collaborative dispute resolution processes, like mediation, there will be an inevitable improvement of user experience and a decrease of costs in the overall system.

Research has shown that over 90% of family lawyers who use collaboration or mediation agreed the results they achieved are in the client’s interest, compared to only about one-third of lawyers using arbitration or litigation.[2] About 66% to 75% of family lawyers agreed that mediation is cost-effective, while 87.1% said litigation is not.[3] Similar statistics exist in the realm of civil law as well. Participants in the Mediate BC small claims court mediation program had consistently rated an average of 86% in satisfaction.

Since mediation and med-arb are two important parts of the suite of access to justice options, the role of Mediate BC is critical. Only by ensuring mediators are trained, experienced, and professional can quality be maintained in the province. Mediation is an unregulated field and anyone can call themselves a mediator. That’s why Mediate BC was formed, to protect the public.

To read the full PDF Media Release, click here. You can also read more about the Triple Aim at the Access to Justice BC website.