Problem Solving Courts as Agents of Change.

Source: (-0001) Canada: National Judicial Institute and National Crime Prevention Centre and Department of Justice.

Problem solving courts have expanded rapidly across the United States in an attempt to find new solutions to difficult socio-legal problems. The dispute resolution model of problem-solving courts is founded upon the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, an approach to the law that regards legal phenomena as having therapeutic and anti-therapeutic consequences.1 Beginning in the area of mental health, this approach has expanded to consider matters within criminal law such as drug abuse and domestic violence and has spread from the U.S. to many jurisdictions. Canada has not yet embraced problem solving courts to the same extent as has the U.S., although there are signs that both federal and provincial governments in Canada are keen to do so. There are currently Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) in Toronto, Vancouver and St. John and the Canadian Department of Justice announced its plan to create three new DTCs in the next 12 months. Problem solving court processes have also arisen in Canada in cases concerning mental health, aboriginal justice and domestic violence.(extract)