A Carleton study is looking into the benefits of mobile apps, as a growing number of families are representing themselves in Canadian courtrooms.
The research project—spearheaded by Carleton law professor, Rebecca Bromwich—is being funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario’s Access to Justice Fund. The foundation is providing $45,000 for the study’s first phase.
Bromwich said the idea for the research came from her pro-bono legal practice, where she discovered that several Ontario judges ordered families to use private, United States-based apps to manage conflicts concerning child custody and access.
“Upon some cursory research, I found that over a hundred cases with these apps popped up, where they had been ordered,” she said. “That got me wondering: what do we know about these apps, whether they’re working or not, and what exactly are they doing?”
Space for these apps—such as “Our Family Wizard”, “FairSplit,” and “Alimentor,”—is created as a result of the high costs of legal aid, especially in family law, according to Bromwich.
“I wouldn’t want to pay a family lawyer, even though I respect them and work as one. The amount of money they cost is just completely prohibitive, even with my income,” she said.
“It is not viable for family law lawyers to lower their rate, and it is not viable for most families to afford lawyers, and that’s why apps like these make sense,” Bromwich added.
Shelley Armstrong, a first-year political science student, said these types of apps would have been a welcome idea during her parents’ divorce.
“I still think if apps like these existed when I was 15, my parents would have had a much easier time going about [their divorce], and their legal process would have been much simpler,” Armstrong said. “I don’t think it would have been nearly as extreme or rough as it was for them to divide time [with the children].”
Armstrong added that she constantly felt like her parents’ divorce could have easily been settled outside of court.
Bromwich said she agreed, adding that mobile apps are capable of relieving a burden on the Ontario judicial system.
In an ideal world, she said that people would have better access to lawyers, and technological solutions could make that possible.
Bromwich said she believes that these apps need to have a human touch in order to fully meet the needs of families.
When families go to court, she said, they are “in a place of crisis.” Lawyers help them through that crisis, and are not easily replaced by phones, she added.
“There is a niche and a space for these apps, but I don’t think they are going to solve all our problems. I think we’re still going to need real people involved,” she said.
But resisting technology is a large part of why these apps have been so late to enter the mainstream, Bromwich added.
She said the legal profession generally looks at how things have traditionally been done, making innovation in the field sparse.
“I think lawyers and the legal profession should embrace the change, and look to innovation because we are very slow to do that. We are really behind,” she explained.
“We’ll be producing a study that both identifies what courts are mandating, and also looking at what people are using in their own private times as a way to cope in Ontario,” Bromwich added.
Bromwich said she is most excited about collaborating with Carleton’s computer engineering department to produce a potential not-for-profit solution that will allow users to look up resources already available to them, that are Canadian.
“Any time you’re spending money in family courts is inherently taking away money that was supposed to go towards the kids, even if it’s on cheaper alternatives like for-profit apps,” she said.
“Even if there is nothing inherently wrong with for-profit applications, there is a gap because wouldn’t it be great and neat if it actually gives you Canadian legal information with pop-ups that told you about resources already available to you?” Bromwich added.
Findings of the project are expected to be publicly available next summer.
Photo by Karen-Luz Sison
