Issues of Cost and Access

ISSUES OF COST & ACCESS IN CANADIANS SOCIAL INVESTMENT LESSONS FOR THE CIVIL JUSTICE SYSTEM + BEYOND SILOS, TOWARDS STRATEGIES 2012 Roundtable Series This Roundtable Series is a part of the Cost of Justice Project, a Community University Research Alliance funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. [...] But it is worthwhile to explore whether instead, it is better to think of the civil justice system as a type of investment that facilitates and supports citizens to resolve their own legal challenges and problems. [...] Does this alternative way of thinking about the civil justice system pro- vide us with a better lens to make visible the costs to individuals and society of not supporting and facilitating people to resolve their legal challenges and problems? [...] Correspondingly, of a fiscally responsible social investment is that the percentage of income replaced by the program what is invested should have a pay off in the future. [...] Rather than having One concrete example of this sort of social invest- the principal purpose of providing individuals with ment is evident from the considerable efforts to money to enable them to make ends meet in the keep marginalized youth in high school.