Methodology

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Research Questions

The following research questions guided this review:

1. What research and evaluation studies have been undertaken within Canada and internationally to examine the use of technology in family courts and/or family justice services?
2. To what extent has the use of technology increased access1 to family justice and/or enhanced the experience of individuals involved in the family justice system?

Although the focus of the study was on the use of technology in the Canadian family justice system, reports on the use of technology in the Canadian civil justice system and internationally were also included to provide examples of how the use of technology could be expanded.

Annotations of published legal and social science research and evaluations between 2010 and 2020 are included in the report. Since the studies reviewed pre-date the pandemic, brief summaries of media articles between March and December 2020 are also included to provide additional information about the use of technology during the first few months of the pandemic.

Literature Search Strategy

Searches were undertaken using Google Scholar and academic databases (i.e., HeinOnline, LexisNexis Academic, Psych INFO, Quick Law, and Scholar Portal). The following keywords were used to search for relevant literature:

• access to justice
• family courts
• civil courts
• court efficiency
• court process
• family justice
• family process
• online services
• technology

In addition to the searches, representatives of the Research Sub-Committee shared studies for consideration for the project. All studies were assessed for relevance, content, and applicability based on the research questions and the focus of this project.

A total of 14 studies and articles were included in the review that focused on the use of technology in the family justice system and civil law system. For each study or article, a citation is provided, followed by the purpose, methodology, and key findings. For additional information, readers can consult the original source.

Media Scan

An online scan of media articles helped to identify technologies that were adopted in the first ten months of the pandemic by Canadian courts (family, civil and criminal) to respond to pandemic-related restrictions. Civil and criminal courts were also included to help identify practices that could be adopted in family courts. The media scan used the following sources: ProQuest, an academic database limited to newspapers and magazines; a Government of Canada electronic media monitoring source: NewsDesk and, two online legal news sources: The Lawyer’s Daily and Slaw.

Overall, 28 articles were identified on the use of technology in Canadian courts due to the COVID-19 pandemic between March and December 2020. The scan included the following search terms:

• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• family justice system
• family justice
• technology
• courts
• family courts

Limitations

The following are the main limitations of the study approach:

• This is an initial scan of documents using limited search terms and should not be considered exhaustive.
• There are very few publicly available evaluations that measure the impact of technology on access to family justice and/or the extent to which it enhances the experience(s) of individuals involved in the family justice system. To address this limitation, the scope of the review was expanded to include literature on technologies that have been used in the family and civil justice system in Canada and internationally.
• The annotated bibliography and media articles were restricted to documents published in English. Reports and articles may have also been published in other languages (e.g. French); however, they were considered only if they were also available in English, given the resources that were available for this study.
• The studies and evaluations included in the review pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid increase in the use of technology caused by the pandemic has changed the way that the family justice system operates. Media articles were included in this report to identify how technology was used given that no current evaluations or research studies were available. Future studies will be needed to fully understand the impact of these changes.
• Few of the studies included user feedback, which limits the ability to assess the impact on access to justice and enhanced experience. Future studies should gather and assess service providers’ and users’ feedback.

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