Come solo or with friends. We’ll run a friendly team-formation exercise on Day 1 so everyone lands on a team (typical teams are 2–5 people, and we strongly encourage mixes of technologists and legally-minded folks).

All skill levels are welcome. Great teams often pair builders (devs, designers, data) with justice-system folks (lawyers, students, service providers) who care about user-centred, collaborative, experimental, evidence-based A2J solutions—the spirit of our community.

Tickets are sold online. You’ll always find the current theme announced on the ticket page (and/or elsewhere on the site) so the FAQs can stay evergreen.

Before the event you’ll receive a Participant Info Pack to get you up to speed on the problem space, the judging criteria, and key logistics—so you can hit the ground running. A usual itinerary is shown under a question in the FAQ.

Bring a laptop, charger, and your best “let’s-try-it” energy. We’ll take care of the rest—space, food, mentors, structure—so you can focus on building something useful.

During the weekend, expect short kickoff talks, a team-formation session, mentor office hours, building time, and Sunday demos. You’ll be asked to show a working prototype, and to follow our simple rules (be respectful; no plagiarism; sign the standard waivers).

We bring in speakers and mentors from across tech, law, and the justice community to deepen your understanding, spark ideas, and unstick teams throughout the build.

Project judging is impact-first. In plain English: do the greatest good for the greatest number in a practical, likely-to-succeed way. We also look for a usable prototype, clear problem fit, and (bonus) smart data/learning hooks. There will be a detailed rubric in your Participant Info Pack.

The Justice Hack is B.C.’s largest access-to-justice hackathon. We are a not-for-profit initiative that unites diverse stakeholders who are passionate about using technology to create meaningful solutions to justice-related issues that affect British Columbians. Occasionally, we take on some projects that are not hackathons.

Our mission is to improve access to justice one hack at a time, by building capacity, fostering connections, and facilitating knowledge-sharing between technologists, business leaders, designers, academics, justice system actors and legal professionals.

The Justice Hack provides participants with:

• A platform to learn about the challenges in the justice system 
• The opportunity to meet new people with similar interests and complementary abilities
• The chance to propose innovative solutions in a fun and engaging environment
• Access to a community of people passionate about improving access to justice
• Lots and lots of good food and great conversation
• The opportunity to develop innovative solutions while having a great time!

A hackathon is a gathering where programmers, designers, subject-matter experts, business people, and others interested in learning to create solutions, collaboratively build a prototype that provides a solution to a problem, in a compressed amount of time (they “hack” together their solution).

The Justice Hack brings together individuals with similar interests and diverse skills to share knowledge, make connections and have fun. In teams of approximately 2-5 people, participants have a weekend to develop a solution that improves access to justice.

Because the justice gap isn’t abstract—it’s millions of people. In Canada, about 1 in 5 adults (≈5.5 million people) faced a serious, hard-to-fix legal problem in just three years, with stress, lost income, and health impacts that spill into everyday life (Statistics Canada, Canadian Legal Problems Survey 2021).

The problems are widespread and expensive to ignore: almost half (48.4%) of adults experience at least one civil or family justice problem over a three‑year period, and among people who paid to resolve their problems, a single resolution costs about $6,100 on average—out-of-reach for many (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice in Canada, 2016).

Help is often unavailable when it’s needed most. The most common reason legal aid applications are refused is “financial ineligibility,” meaning many people earn “too much” for aid but far too little to afford a lawyer this accounted for 62% of all matter refusals in 2021-22, and 59% of criminal-matter refusals in 2022-23. In recent reports, ~59–62% of refusals were for this reason (Department of Justice Canada, Legal Aid in Canada Annual Reports, 2020–21 and 2021–22).

Delay turns problems into crises. Ontario’s four largest tribunals reported a collective backlog of 67,000+ cases, and courts and tribunals across Canada continue to struggle with post-pandemic delays—eroding trust and outcomes (Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, Travis Dods, The Breakdown of Trust: How Delays in Canada’s Justice System Foster Vigilantism, 2024).

Even by global standards, we have work to do. Canada ranks 12th of 142 countries for overall rule of law, but just 25th for civil justice—dragged down by affordability and timeliness (World Justice Project, Rule of Law Index 2024).

Bottom line: Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice that is too slow, too complex, or too expensive isn’t justice. Closing this gap—through better design, smarter policy, and pragmatic tech—matters for people’s health, family stability, and Canada’s social and economic well-being.

Yes! We have run various events surrounding access to justice issues, and in 2021 created Voices of Justice magazine.

Amazing! Reach out to us at info@thejusticehack.org.