Canada is in the midst of an access to justice crisis. The rising costs and complexity of legal services in Canada have surpassed the need for these services. This article briefly explores some obstacles to civil justice as well as some of the court-based programmes and initiatives in place across Canada to address this growing access to justice gap. In particular, this article explains the Canadian civil justice system and canvasses the procedures and programmes in place to make the justice system more efficient and improve access to justice in small and simple matters. Although this article does look briefly at the impact of the global financial crisis on access to justice efforts in Canada, we do not provide empirical data of our own on this point. Further, we conclude that there is not enough existing data to draw correlations between austerity measures in response to the global crisis and the challenges facing Canadian civil justice. More evidence-based research would be helpful to understand current access to justice challenges and to make decisions on how best to move forward with meaningful innovation and policy reform. However, there is reason for optimism in Canada: innovative ideas and a national action plan provide reason to believe that the country can simplify, expedite, and increase access to civil justice in meaningful ways over the coming years.

Giuseppe De Palo and Romina Canessa give a description of the recent publication of a study conducted for the European Parliament on Mediation, ‘Rebooting the Mediation Directive: Assessing the Limited Impact of its Implementation and Proposing Measures to Increase the Number of Mediations in the EU’, has contributed to the ongoing debate about effective mediation policy. The Study concluded that despite an increase in mediation awareness and the proven benefits it can have, mediation still remains largely unused as a method of dispute resolution.

This article examines the practice of foreclosure mediation in the American mortgage market after the financial crisis of 2008. Many states have implemented foreclosure mediation programs to handle the deluge of foreclosure proceedings in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The role of the mortgage servicing industry in the success or failure of this type of mediation is discussed, as well as the possible outcomes of a foreclosure mediation.