In De Kova v. De Kova, 2011 BCSC 1271 -- a fairly typical BC Supreme Court divorce case involving two self-represented parties -- Justice Loryl Russell comments on the lack of affordable legal representation or legal aid options for middle-class litigants, and the resulting difficulties in adjudicating legal disputes between self-represented litigants.  At paragraphs 14 and 15 of her judgment, Justice Russell states:

"[14] This case points out the difficulty in which parties who are “middle class” but do not have substantial earnings find themselves when they must rely on the courts to resolve their problems. They do not qualify for the almost non-existent legal aid available and yet they cannot afford to use lawyers. This means they come before the court with little idea of what they need to do, what documents they ought to produce and what evidence they should place before the court. With all the good will in the world, the court cannot lead their cases for them, cross-examine for them, argue for them and thus ensure their cases have been properly put forward.

[15] It is shameful that in our wealthy province we no longer have resources available which would give real help to parties in this situation. In my view, a case like this demonstrates a failure to improve access to justice."