March 25, 2009

More about changes to legal aid

The last issue of ELAN contained information about upcoming changes to legal aid staff and services. Since then, we’ve posted a backgrounder providing more details about the changes under News releases on the LSS website. Here’s a summary:

Family and CFCSA representation services continue unchanged for financially eligible clients who are facing serious family situations: for example, if their safety or the safety of their children is at risk; they have been denied access on an ongoing basis; there is a risk that a child will be permanently removed from the province; or their children are or may be removed by the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Dispute resolution services, introduced in 2006 for financially eligible clients with significant family law problems who do not qualify for legal aid representation, will be discontinued after March 31, 2009. These services were added for cases that do not raise safety concerns or qualify under any of the emergency services criteria (for example, if clients need help with property division).

Extended family services, introduced in 2005 to give lawyers extra time to complete cases, have been reduced, but are still available.

Some criminal offences (Category 1 offences), including breach of probation, failure to appear, and breach of bail, will no longer be covered by legal aid representation after April 2009, even if the client is facing other outstanding charges or there is a risk of jail. Clients affected by this may be able to apply to the court for court-appointed counsel.

Youths facing Category 1 charges are not affected by this change, and continue to receive legal aid representation.

Immigration and refugee law representation services will continue to be provided to financially eligible clients with cases that have a reasonable chance of success involving refugee claims, immigration problems that could lead to the client’s removal from Canada to a country where he or she would be at risk, and appeals of immigration decisions.

LSS is introducing stricter merit screening of immigration legal aid applications to ensure that spending remains within the available budget, so some cases that would have been covered in the past will not be covered after April 1, 2009. People with immigration law problems are encouraged to still apply for legal aid so that their cases can be assessed for legal merit.

LawLINE will continue for another year, but will be reduced to two lawyers and six paralegals. LSS is redefining the scope of LawLINE services, and we will provide further details when they are available. The Community Advocate Support Line is not affected by these changes.

LSS will give priority to maintaining duty counsel services as long as resources permit.

Outreach services are provided by legal information outreach workers (LIOWs) and fieldworkers. LIOW services will continue unchanged. Fieldwork will continue at a reduced level after April 2009.

Publications, websites, and multimedia continue with reduced staffing after April 2009.

LSS welcomes your feedback. Please send any questions, comments, or suggestions to LSS-Services@lss.bc.ca.