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Access to Justice week 2026, February 2-6

Wednesday, February 04, 2026 Posted by Natalie Rocheleau

February 2-6 marks Access to Justice (A2J) Week BC in 2026, which provides an opportunity to learn more about and participate in access to justice work being done around the province.

This year's theme is centered on the idea of challenges as opportunities for reinvention. When we encounter obstacles, those same barriers also serve to highlight gaps in access, which in turn provides an opportunity to take initiative and think creatively about how we can provide effective service within those spaces.

Thinking creatively is not only about about future projects and possibilities, but also about what we might be pouring time and energy into even though it may no longer serve us or our patrons effectively. We can ask ourselves how we might modify our legal reference services or connect the public with trusted advisors for legal assistance through on-going training or new partnerships and programs.

In the words of A2J BC, this theme asks:

What works, what doesn’t, and how do we know? We will explore how research, practice and innovation are coming together to better understand the outcomes that our legal system creates and to identify models that can reach those most at the margins. By focusing on effectiveness and specific populations, we can ask more meaningful questions about what justice feels like for those experiencing it and what it requires from those delivering it.

Public libraries are frequently on the front-lines when patrons have a legal issue they need to work out in their lives, and they rely on the library to provide them with a trusted starting point in their research or an effective referral. If you want to explore this topic more, LawMatters has created freely accessible legal reference guides available on our website. We also welcome you to connect with us at any time to find out how we can support you in your own legal reference training and collection development of legal materials. 

This article is a LawMatters Blog post written for current awareness at the time of publishing. Please check the publication date as some information may have changed since then.