Helping people access justice at the Social Security Tribunal (SST)
Access to justice (A2J): Why it matters
Justice is a service for everyone
Everyone has the right to know how laws affect them. Everyone should have access to the information, resources, and services they need to properly challenge a decision about their rights.
Administrative tribunals play an important role in making access to justice (A2J) easier.
At the SST , A2J is about:
- helping people access justice in a simple, quick, and fair way
- adapting to the needs of our users
- making sure people can fully participate in their appeal and understand the outcome
How the SST works: Responding to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Vavilov, has details about how the SST works. It also has information about our claimants and members and how we make decisions.
What we’re committed to doing
We want to help people access justice in ways that matter. Our commitment to A2J is in line with Canada’s Justice Development Goals and Canada’s broader commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
We’re committed to the following:
- putting people at the centre of our justice service by being accessible, inclusive, fair, and respectful
- using data to improve how we work and make decisions
- evaluating and reporting on all our A2J initiatives
- going with claimants’ preferred type of hearing at the General Division
- making sure parties are equal participants in appeals by publishing decisions to help claimants prepare for their appeal
- speaking and writing in plain language so claimants can understand how appeals work and what the outcome of their appeal is
- assigning navigators to claimants without representation to support them through their appeal
- looking for opportunities to resolve appeals early
- actively adjudicating
- SST members (the decision-makers) are proactive and guide parties so they understand and fully participate in their hearing, while remaining impartial
- consulting and working with users and other stakeholders
- showing leadership
- we use our initiatives and outreach activities to show people why access to justice is important
For more information about our A2J initiatives, see our access to justice web page or contact us.