A quote from the Chief Justice, although dealing with courts, also applies to tribunals where participants are less likely to be represented by counsel:
Unrepresented litigants encounter their first difficulties at the Courthouse door. Court staff, already overburdened… face increasing numbers of self-represented litigants who ask for explanations of the legal process as it pertains to their cases... [court staff] are rightly hesitant to offer legal advice.
That means not only devoting sufficient resources, but also using the most creative mechanisms possible to ensure full and meaningful access to, and participation in, the legal process...
Ideas include easy accessibility to forms and instructions, provision of brochures and other educational materials, and information about the availability of lawyers for consultation about specific questions...
... we should do what we can to make the law clear and accessible to average Canadians. The law is, perhaps, the most important example of how words affect people’s lives. There is truth in the proposition that if we cannot understand our rights, we have no rights.5
The unrepresented client puts more pressure on us, the tribunal members and adjudicators. We have to help the unrepresented client to ensure fairness but we still have to be the impartial decision-maker. If the client also has literacy problems, the situation is made more difficult.
5. Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C. “Preserving Public Confidence in the Courts and the Legal Profession” (Distinguished Visitor’s Lecture, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, February 2, 2002). Return