Access to Justice and the Ethics and Politics of Alternative Business Structures

Authors

Richard Devlin, Dalhousie University - Schulich School of LawFollow
Ora Morison, Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Keywords

Access to Justice, Canadian Legal Practice, Alternative Business Structures, Australia, United Kingdom, United States

Abstract

Despite ongoing concern about access to justice in Canada, the problem persists. Meanwhile, the basic model for legal practice in Canada is the same as when the profession first emerged centuries ago in England. Only lawyers can own and control legal practices. This is not the case in other common law jurisdictions where rules have evolved to allow nonlawyers to own the companies that provide legal services. Based on a comparative analysis of the development of these alternative business structures (ABSs) in Australia and the United Kingdom, and the nondevelopment of ABSs in the United States, the authors argue that ABSs may be at least a partial solution to the access to justice problem in Canada. Recent developments indicate ABSs will eventually come to Canada, at which point, the authors argue the legal professional societies will have a crucial role to play in developing appropriate regulation to ensure ABSs improve access to justice.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Richard Devlin & Ora Morison, "Access to Justice and the Ethics and Politics of Alternative Business Structures" (2012) 91:3 Can Bar Rev 483.