Browsing by Author "Bertrand, Lorne D."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Children’s Participation In Justice Processes: Survey Of Justices Of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench
    (Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family, 2018-06) Paetsch, Joanne J.; Bertrand, Lorne D.; Boyd, J.-P. E.
    In September 2017, the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family and Alberta’s Office of the Child and Youth Advocate hosted a two-day national symposium to discuss the impact of the legal system on Canadian families, with the goal of generating innovative ideas, new research priorities and best practices around the ways that children participate in legal processes. One component of that project involved the Institute conducting a survey of participants prior to the symposium. The survey collected data on participants’ attitudes on the importance of soliciting children’s views in family law proceedings that affect them, the best ways to determine those views, and the extent to which they have had experience with soliciting children’s views in their work. The resulting report was published in December 2017 (Paetsch, Bertrand & Boyd, 2017). The substantial majority of survey respondents were lawyers; only four judges completed the survey. It was decided that, in addition to the information collected from lawyers, it would be very useful to also solicit the views from the bench on this important topic. The Institute requested and received permission from Associate Chief Justice Rooke of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench to conduct a survey of Queen’s Bench justices on the subjects addressed in the survey of symposium participants. A questionnaire was developed based on the content of the earlier survey to maximize comparability of the two instruments.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    An Evaluation of Alberta's Mandatory Early Intervention Case Conference Pilot Project
    (Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family, 2018-08) Bertrand, Lorne D.; Paetsch, Joanne J.; Boyd, J.-P. E.
    Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench has implemented a pilot project requiring early intervention case conferences (EICCs) in certain family law cases. The pilot project is one of the Court’s responses to the increasing numbers of litigants without counsel, the short complement of the bench relative to the province’s population and the increasing delays until family law cases can be tried. The EICC pilot project is intended to promote access to justice for families in Canada by providing a means for families to have their family law cases heard expeditiously and settled efficiently.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    An Evaluation of The Aspire Legal Access Initiative
    (2018-07) Paetsch, Joanne J.; Bertrand, Lorne D.
    The University of Calgary’s Aspire Legal Access Initiative (ALAI), the first Canadian incubator project, was developed to provide its law school graduates with intensive articles in family law while improving access to family justice. Special project funding to operate the incubator was originally requested from the Alberta Law Foundation and other sources of potential funding, but the application was turned down. The University of Calgary agreed to support the initial startup of the program, and the project was able to move forward. An Executive Director, lawyer Kyla Sandwith, was hired in the summer of 2017, the necessary articles of incorporation were prepared, and the first cohort of four articled students was selected shortly thereafter.