The Triple Aim: A cross-sector vision

This morning, A2JBC was proud to issue a media release advising that more than 50 justice sector organizations have signed onto the Access to Justice Triple Aim.

The Triple Aim, borrowed from the health care sector, is a single goal with three elements: improved experience for the users of the justice system, improved population access to justice and improved costs.

The endorsement of the Triple Aim demonstrates we have broad cross-sectoral agreement that, indeed, there is an access to justice problem—something we’ve known for years, if not decades—and that we are committed to doing something about it.

More specifically, we are willing to start looking at the justice system from the perspective of the ordinary people who use it. We are willing to collaborate. We are willing to innovate.

The organizations signing onto the Triple Aim are positioned to support access initiatives, remove access barriers and, ultimately, to protect people’s access to justice as a fundamental right and to uphold the rule of law.

The justice system is a complex network of entities. To make an impact requires collective action—of course while protecting the independence of the various justice system actors as appropriate—acknowledging that no one person or organization is going to come up with a singular solution that fixes everything.

As Chief Justice of British Columbia and chair of Access to Justice BC, I’m encouraged to see the support and commitment to access to justice across the sector and beyond. While much work lies ahead, today is a celebration of this achievement of a shared vision for access to justice. Congratulations to all of the participating organizations for your willingness to acknowledge the problem and the need to do something different. I look forward to seeing concrete change in the months and years to come.