Legal Aid Service Delivery in Rural and Remote Communities across Canada: Issues and Perspectives in the Context of COVID-19

Appendix 1: Interview Guide

Jurisdiction:

Respondent:

Role:

Preamble: Clarify terms “rural” and “remote” (see footnote).

Part A: Description of the consumers of service, their needs and challenges in rural and remote areas of your jurisdiction

  1. Demographics: What are the demographic characteristics of persons accessing legal aid in rural and remote regions of your province/territory, and what types of challenges are they are facing? (Probe for women, Indigenous clients, seniors, immigrants). Other specific minority groups that face greater challenges in rural/remote areas?
  2. Legal needs: What are the legal needs of legal aid clients living in rural and remote areas of your province/territory? (Probe: differences according to consumer types identified in Q.1); legal issues even if not covered by legal aid. Are there differing level of awareness of legal rights and procedures to access justice for certain groups?
  3. Language: What is the extent to which legal aid clients who speak a minority official language or Indigenous language have need for services in their language of choice in rural and remote areas of your province/territory?
  4. Access/Technology: What type of clients in your province/territory are having the most difficulty with access to services and/or with technology? What are the reasons for these difficulties? What types of social and/or cultural practices impede efforts to access justice? (Probe: differences according to consumer types identified in Q.1)

Part B: Description of service provision/issues in rural and remote communities of your jurisdiction

  1. Range of services: What are the types of legal and social services (including volunteer organizations) available for legal aid clients living in rural and remote communities in your province/territory, and how are they designed to meet the challenges and requirements of consumers described in Part A? (e.g., do some/any services specialize in delivery to consumer types identified in question A-1, or have proactive outreach strategies to link them to such services?)
    What, if any, policies create obstacles for potential clients seeking assistance?
  2. Range of services: Of services mentioned in Q. 1, which might most effectively complement or be an alternative to legal representation? (e.g., social service referral systems, unbundled legal services, PLEI through public libraries and other information distribution strategies, “one-stop shops”; other community initiatives. Any innovative pilot projects or collaborations with other social/health services?).
  3. Minority language: To what extent are services able to be provided to legal aid clients in a minority official language or Indigenous language in rural and remote areas of your province/territory?
  4. Organization/funding of delivery: What are the challenges legal aid plans are facing in providing legal services in rural and remote areas of your province/territory, and what initiatives have been put in place to incentivize/facilitate legal aid lawyers to provide services in these areas? (probe this issue not only generally, but for lawyers serving specific client groups; probe situations where both parties need representation or assistance; probe law school recruitment practices to incentivize rural delivery)
  5. Organization/funding of delivery: What are the costs/funding available for providing legal aid in rural areas in your province/territory in comparison to urban centres, and has this been impacted by COVID-19? Do you have examples of innovative legal service delivery mechanisms in your jurisdiction?
  6. Technology: What are the types of technology available in your province/territory for legal aid clients living in rural and remote areas to access legal aid and the court system? What are the greatest technological challenges? Are there any rural A2J apps that are in common usage in your jurisdiction?
  7. Technology/Internet: Has government funding and/or initiatives of private companies in your jurisdiction increased Internet access in rural regions, and if so, what has been the impact on the provision of legal aid? To what degree have any improvements been made particularly in Indigenous communities?
  8. Technology: Have there been changes in the type of technology used by legal aid plans for providing legal services remotely to legal aid clients in your province/territory? For what types of matters or cases does remote technology work well/not well?
  9. Technology: If (in question 8) there have been changes, what has been the impact of these technologies on the relationship between legal aid lawyers, legal aid staff and their clients in your province/territory?
  10. Monitoring/evaluation: Is there sufficient research being undertaken and/or adequate data systems available for effective monitoring and evaluation of service provision in rural and remote areas to the target groups mentioned in A-1? If not, what are the priority needs? Are distinctions are made between “rural” and “remote”?

Part C: Impacts of COVID in your jurisdiction

  1. Costs: How has COVID-19 impacted the costs and funding available for delivering legal aid in rural areas in comparison to urban centres in your province/territory?
  2. Access to services: How has COVID-19 impacted access to legal aid services and the courts for those who live in rural and remote areas in your province/territory?

The following definitions of “rural” and “remote” are suggested as rough guidelines:

Rural population: persons living in or outside of towns or municipalities outside of the commuting zone of urban areas with 10,000 or more people.

Remote communities: communities will be deemed remote based on the degree of isolation they have from other communities. The availability of commercial transportation between communities will be a significant determining factor.

They are drawn from p. 15 of the following report, which in turn references sources from other documents:

International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy (ICCLR). Enhancing Access to Justice for Women Living in Rural and Remote Areas of British Columbia: Reviewing Practices from Canada and Abroad to Improve Our Response. Eileen Skinnider and Ruth Montgomery. (2019) BCLF-WA2J-Report-Final.pdf (icclr.org)