The Triple Aim: A cross-sector vision
Published 05/07/2019
On 12 June 2019, leaders of British Columbia’s key justice organisations joined Attorney General, David Eby and Chief Justice of British Columbia, Robert Bauman to mark the signing of the Access to Justice Triple Aim which will guide initiatives and reforms for making family and civil justice more accessible to British Columbians.
Over 50 justice organisations (including The Access Pro Bono Society of BC, The Canadian Bar Association – BC Branch, The Civil Resolution Tribunal, The Employment Standards Tribunal, The Financial Services Tribunal and The Law Society of BC) agreed to a common access to justice goal that puts user experience at the centre.
The Triple Aim is a single goal with three elements:
- Improved experience for the users of the justice system
- Improved population access to justice
- Improved costs
The Access to Justice Triple Aim is an initiative of Access to Justice BC, a network of people and organisations from the judiciary, the government, not-for-profit justice organisations and the public dedicated to realising a common vision. This cross-sector commitment to a common goal, The Triple Aim, is a historic step for justice sector organisations that have quite different mandates, which often require that they act independently of each other.
The BC Chief Justice describes the current justice system as a “complex network of entities” and stresses the importance of cross-sector collaboration in order to come up with solutions that trigger systemic change and improve access to justice. He says that the Rule of Law itself is at risk if citizens are prevented from accessing justice.
An example of an initiative directed at the Access to Justice Triple Aim is unbundling legal services so that more British Columbians can access the legal help they need in a way that works for them, and at a lower cost. Another example is the Family Justice Pathfinder project based in Kamloops which is working at designing a user-friendly way to connect family members experiencing separation or divorce to the information and services they need. Both initiatives focus on the needs and experiences of the user of the services.
