Obiter Dicta Issue 13 - March 24, 2014 | Page 5

page 5 The time to act is now: Transforming research into innovative action HANNAH DE JONG Canadian Forum on Civil Justice Research must always go hand-in-hand with action and implementation. While the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice primarily focuses on access to justice research and advocacy, it also recognizes the importance of putting the recommendations and strategies that are developed by evidence-based research into action. Indeed, it can be said that research, while important, accomplishes little if it does not spur others to act. While the CFCJ’s national “Cost of Justice” survey is currently in the stages of data collection, there is a wealth of other studies with sound recommendations ready to be put into practice. One of the most recent is the final report of the national Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, which has sparked discussions around the importance of moving from research and recommendations to action and implementation. The report, “A Roadmap for Change”, which came out last October, calls on governments, academics, the legal profession, and all other stakeholders to rise to the challenge of improving access to justice in Canada. It provides a nine-point access to justice “roadmap” that delineates concrete and innovative goals that we should be striving to meet. Some of these goals include increasing funding for legal aid, strengthening the “Early Resolution Services Secto