Enabling Equitable Access to Justice: Modernizing a Canadian Court’s Trial Scheduling System

The challenge of access inequality in court scheduling

The busy signal: perhaps no sound better captures the frustration of accessing public services through outdated systems. For countless citizens and legal practitioners, that distinctive tone—or hours spent on hold—had become an unwelcome barrier to services meant to serve everyone equally.

When a Canadian court recognized that this reality was undermining its core mission of providing equitable access to justice, they partnered with OXD to transform the experience.

The court’s primary challenge was addressing fundamental access inequality in their booking process:

• The “first-to-call” phone system was only open for booking trial dates on one day each month
• Legal practitioners consistently encountered busy signals and lengthy wait times
• The system disproportionately favored larger, better-resourced firms who could dedicate more staff to repeatedly calling
• The process created significant stress for both callers and court administrative staff
• Self-represented citizens faced additional barriers navigating this complex system

Human-centred design for equitable justice

We followed an iterative, user-centred process that balanced procedural fairness with technological innovation.

Systemic analysis

We worked closely with the court to map out the existing process and surface the ways it reinforced inequities. For example, better-resourced firms had more staff available to call repeatedly, and that gave them an unfair advantage. The reliance on phone-based booking also excluded people who couldn’t afford to wait on hold during working hours.

Equitable concept development

With fairness and usability as our guiding principles, we explored a range of ideas to reduce disparities. One key innovation was the introduction of an “unmet demand” feature:

• If a booking attempt failed due to full availability, that failed request was remembered.
• Future requests for the same case would be given increased priority, ensuring that previous unsuccessful attempts did not create lasting disadvantage.

To assess this approach, we built an early algorithm prototype and tested it to ensure the resulting bookings would be both efficient and equitable.

Solution design and testing

We designed a digital scheduling system that allowed legal professionals to request preferred dates online, rather than calling to secure a spot in real time. Key components included:

• A streamlined online request process where legal professionals submit their preferred trial dates for consideration
• A fairness-focused algorithm to distribute available dates
• Automated email notifications for legal professionals
• Visibility into finalized schedules and unmet demand cases for court staff

To validate the solution, we conducted usability testing with legal professionals from a range of firm sizes, as well as internal court staff. Participants completed task-based exercises with the prototype, such as attempting to book a multi-day trial or reacting to a failed booking.

This testing phase allowed us to:

• Confirm that users understood the system and trusted it to be fair
• Validate support for features such as 18-month advance scheduling and multi-date selections
• Gather feedback that shaped interface clarity and overall usability

This feedback loop ensured the final product reflected both court requirements and the realities of legal practice.

Our digital solution: more access, less stress

Following a structured development phase, OXD built and delivered a digital application that allowed legal professionals to submit trial date requests online—replacing the monthly phone scramble with a smarter, more equitable process.

While practitioners do not book trial dates directly, they receive outcomes by email, and court staff view final schedules via the administrative interface. The algorithm manages fairness automatically, with no manual intervention required.

The final solution delivered tangible improvements for the court system:

• Fair date allocation: The new algorithm distributes available court dates based on submitted preferences, reducing bias and improving transparency.
• Longer planning horizon: Practitioners can now request dates up to 18 months in advance, enabling better preparation.
• Reduced stress: Eliminating the “race-to-call” model has dramatically lowered booking anxiety for legal professionals.
• Improved user experience: Secure verifiable credentials integration and a simplified interface make the process easier to navigate.
• Operational efficiency: Court staff are no longer tied up managing phone queues, freeing them to focus on higher-value work.

This solution represents not just a technology shift, but a foundational improvement in how court services are delivered to create a fairer, more accessible system for everyone involved.

Measurable impact and a model for the future

In just the first month of rollout, the new scheduling system processed a significant volume of requests, assigning trial dates fairly across firm sizes and regions. By replacing the old call-in model, the court delivered faster outcomes while maintaining fairness at scale.

The partnership between the court and OXD represents a significant step in modernizing court services and is a model for addressing equity in justice systems.

Courts client

Transforming justice access

While the core technology changed from phone to digital, the real transformation was in creating a more accessible justice system. This case demonstrates that even in institutions with deeply established processes and legacy systems, meaningful modernization is possible.

This wasn’t just a shift in tools. It was a rethinking of how equitable access can be built into the core of public service delivery.