The Legal Problems of Everyday Life The Nature, Extent and Consequences of Justiciable Problems Experienced by Canadians The Legal Problems of Everyday Life The Nature, Extent and Consequences of Justiciable Problems Experienced by Canadians Ab Currie rr07-lar1e The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice Canada or th [...] The rationing and filtering mechanisms that determine what problems are taken to the law have the advantage of automatically identifying a part of the universe of need, even though the need identified is only the small “demand” portion of all needs. [...] This is especially true historically when, characteristically during the early years of the development of legal aid, and probably similar to the early phase of the life cycle of any institution, demand so obviously exceeds both funding and the supply of service that it might seem absurd to question the “wisdom” of demand. [...] However, determining the prevalence of justiciable events among the population is the starting point that provides the basic framework for the analysis of people’s experience in seeking assistance with problems and the consequences of experiencing justiciable problems. [...] A. Currie, A National Survey of the Civil Justice Problems of Low and Moderate Income Canadians: Incidence and patterns, Department of Justice, Ottawa, 2005 6 surveys of self-reported justiciable problems there is always the possibility of ambiguity, the control for the legal nature of problems through the careful wording of the questions should assure validity.