Development of An Access to Justice Index for Federal Administrative Bodies

Annex 1

Glossary of Terms

Below are terms and explanations used throughout the report.

Access to Justice

Enabling Canadians to obtain the information and assistance they need to help prevent legal issues from arising and help them to resolve such issues efficiently, affordably, and fairly, either through informal resolution mechanisms, where possible, or the formal justice system, when necessary.Footnote 71

Accessible language

Accessible language is similar to the concept of “plain language”. The Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals (CCAT) provides a definition of “plain language” and offers an on-line course on literacy.Footnote 72

Active adjudication

Active adjudication is defined by Sossin “as a mid-point between adversarial and inquisitorial models of a legal process, and one focused on the policy context rather than the judicial model of the neutral arbiter or inquest model of the judge-led inquiry. An active adjudicator will respect the right of parties to put forward their own positions on questions of law and fact but may supplement submissions by raising additional issues, seeking information or perspectives not provided by the parties, and redressing any asymmetries resulting from represented and unrepresented parties or parties of greater or lesser sophistication. . . . ”Footnote 73

At a practical level, Ian Mackenzie describes active adjudication as “…the act of bending the process to fit the person or persons before the adjudicator, while respecting the impartiality of the adjudicator.”Footnote 74

Composite Index score

Composite Index score is the overall Index score for the administrative body, reflecting results for all four categories.

Index

While this term is used in many different contexts, it is used here as an indicator or a measurement of a stated or known goal. In this project, the Access to Justice Index for Federal Administrative Bodies is a measurement of Canadians’ ability to access justice at each of the participating administrative bodies.

Index score

Index score is the term used for the Weighted score divided by the total possible weights for each sub-category or category, which is then multiplied by 100. Each category will have a separate Index score. The Composite Index score is calculated by adding each category Index score together and dividing by four.

Members

Members refers to those who adjudicate on behalf of an administrative body and are Governor-in-Council appointments for fixed periods of time (e.g. 3 years, 5 years).

Party/ies

Party/ies refers to the individual(s), group, organization, business, etc. who has made a complaint AND the individual(s), group, organization, business, etc. against whom the complaint has been made. As each administrative body may use a different term to describe these, we have chosen to use this general term.

Public legal education and information (PLEI)

Public legal education and information (PLEI) is defined as “an activity that seeks in a systematic way to provide people with the opportunity to obtain information about the law and the justice system in a form that is timely and appropriate to their needs.”Footnote 75

Staff

Staffrefers to those who work for, or support, the administrative body and are public servants.

Weighted score

Weighted score refers to the total of all the points for each sub-category or category. The points are the weights (either 10, 5 or 1 for a “yes” response or zero for a “no” response) given to each indicator.