Transforming access to justice, a digital approach

We all recognize the importance that laws and regulations have in our society. In fact, developing and maintaining a safe community is part of our evolution story, and our civilization has been built on systems that provide safety, and ensure that communities run fairly. However, across many parts of our justice system, the inherent age, traditions and complexity of these systems has resulted in costly and inefficient processes that are either fully manual or supported by antiquated technology. Similar to many other public and private organizations, these institutions are recognizing the potential of a digital transformation.

Recognizing the need for change, the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) was established in 2016 to become Canada’s first online, and digital-by-default tribunal. It is part of a broader Tribunal Transformation Initiative, where the Government of British Columbia has set out to implement digital justice services at up to 20 administrative justice tribunals across the province by 2021. Through the development of two unique digital applications, the Solution Explorer and the Dispute Resolution Suite, citizen access to justice services is being completely transformed. The applications support both citizens and tribunal staff across the entire dispute lifecycle, and are currently being used by the CRT to administer small claims and strata to condominium disputes. To date, these applications have enabled the CRT to administer over 6000 disputes. They have enabled the CRT to reduce the average cost of a dispute to $125, and the average time to resolution from 7 months to 60 to 90 days. Citizens are now able to manage their disputes in their own time and in a way that suits them, and since the CRT launched, 45% of users accessed the applications outside of traditional court hours, and only around 1% of users requested not to use email and opted to use paper forms. Most importantly, effective use of the applications has achieved a 75% early resolution rate, with an overwhelmingly positive response from citizens. Based on the success of the Civil Resolution Tribunal in small claims and strata disputes they will assume jurisdiction over additional small claims and minor motor vehicle accidents in 2019, which will see their caseload increase almost six fold. The Solution Explorer and Dispute Resolution Suite are also currently being rolled out ot a number of other tribunals in BC and will very soon be used to administer employment and assistance appeals, and labour relations disputes.

PwC Canada’s Gert du Preez, Partner and British Columbia’s Technology Consulting Leader, and James Anderson, Director, Technology Advisory, will be joined by Richard Rogers, the Executive Director and Registrar of BC’s Civil Resolution Tribunal to discuss  all aspects of this extraordinary digital transformation. As a global pioneer in digital justice, the team will discuss the importance of leadership buy-in, and implementing an agile methodology to allow both citizens and Government stakeholders to see and test software early in the process, and to be intimately involved in shaping the final solutions. We’ll get an update on the current status of the Tribunal Transformation Initiative, and the session will end with Melaina Vinski, PwC Canada’s Behavioural Insights Lead hosting an interactive Q&A, so be sure to come with your questions!