
July 15, 2009
Resources for clients with credit/debt issues In these tough economic times, you probably have lots of clients asking you for information about credit and debt issues. Here are a few current print, Web, and telephone resources that you could refer them to. LSS has three useful publications: Consumer Law and Credit/Debt Law: This manual for advocates, lawyers, counsellors, and other intermediaries contains useful sections on bankruptcy, creditors, debtors, and mortgages and foreclosures, among others. Can’t Pay Your Mortgage: What You Can Do If You're Facing Foreclosure: This booklet is available online only, but is currently being revised and will be available in print later this year. Aboriginal People and the Law in BC: This manual for legal advocates contains sections on bankruptcy, debt, and consumer issues for Aboriginal people. For clients who owe money to ICBC, see "When ICBC Does Not Issue or Renew a Driver's Licence due to 'Motor Vehicle Indebtedness'" on the Office of Superintendent of Motor Vehicles website. For clients who have been charged with shoplifting and received associated "civil demand recovery" letters, see the links provided on the LawLINE FAQ page on the LSS website. The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Canada website contains useful information. See also the Business Practices & Consumer Protection Authority website. The Canadian Bar Association has some useful scripts on the Dial-A-Law page of their website. In particular, see scripts #252: "Harassment by Debt Collectors" and #253: "When You Can’t Pay Your Debts." You can also listen to these scripts over the phone by calling 604-687-4680 or 1-800-565-5297 (call no charge, outside the Lower Mainland). The online UBC Law Students Advice Manual contains useful information in Chapter 10: "Creditors’ Remedies & Debtors’ Assistance." The Credit Counselling Society is a good resource for anyone who needs help with debt problems. Call 604-527-8999 or 1-888-527-8999 (no charge). They might help create a budget and make a payment plan for debtors. Sometimes they can negotiate that the principal only is payable on a debt. They can help to consolidate debts and will often help by distributing one monthly payment that the client makes to them to the client's various creditors. The first session is free, and after that there is a small charge for their services. They also have a useful website. Clients who have taken out payday loans might want to instruct their bank to stop payment on a cheque, close the account that the payday loan company knows about, or cancel a wage assignment that they may have already signed. However, the clients should get some legal advice before taking any of these actions. At present, payday lenders cannot sue in Small Claims Court, but this could change in the future. For more information, call LawLINE or check out the Clicklaw website. Hot off the press from LSS We've recently completed two booklets in the "What to Do If You Are Charged with…" series: there is a new booklet called What to Do If You Are Charged with a Breach of a Court Order and What to Do If You Are Charged with Assault has been revised and updated. Each of these booklets describes what happens if someone is charged with one of these offences. They are intended for people who plan to represent themselves in court because they want to plead not guilty to the charge, aren't covered by legal aid, and can’t afford a lawyer. (Breach charges are no longer covered by legal aid, even if the individual faces other outstanding charges or risks jail.) These guides describe what the offences are, what the prosecutor must prove in court, how the accused can defend themselves, and what their possible sentences could be if they are found guilty. Introducing RSS feeds on the Family Law in BC website Over the past few years, you may have seen the RSS logo (see above) beside a link to "subscribe to get updates" appearing more often when you browse the Internet. Some of you may already be familiar with this term and subscribing to updates from many Web pages. Some may still be wondering what it's all about. The term RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. An RSS feed pulls in fresh content from a Web page automatically to let you know that the site has been updated. By subscribing to RSS feeds, you can find out right away when anything has been changed on a website and see exactly what the new content is. We've recently added RSS feeds to the What's new pages on the Family Law in BC website (What’s new on the Family Law website and What’s new in family law). Each feed contains a direct link to the new or revised page. You can subscribe to RSS feeds in your Web browser or have the updates sent to your Outlook e-mail inbox. Our instructions on How to subscribe to RSS feeds from the Family Law website (PDF) can walk you through subscribing in either Internet Explorer or Microsoft Outlook. LSS publication distribution will be moving in September The Legal Services Society (LSS) is committed to providing publication distribution services in the most cost-effective manner possible. Accordingly, in mid-September, we will be moving our publication distribution service off site to Crown Publications. Once this service has moved, you will be able to order LSS publications online, and by e-mail, phone, fax, or mail in the same way as you do now. We will provide more details about the implementation, including the new address and contact information, in the September ELAN. There will be a transition period, but if you send requests to LSS for publications during this period, we will forward them to Crown Publications, and the switchover ought to be relatively seamless. Chuck it out: Publications and videos to recycle In this issue, we start the new "Chuck it out" feature to notify you when an LSS publication or video should be discarded and/or replaced by a newer version. In future issues, this list will contain only one or two items, but to start you off, we've listed six months' worth of discarded/outdated items. Please send us an e-mail if you have older publications and you're wondering whether they're still current. Please recycle the following as they are out of date or contain incorrect content: For the Sake of Our Children: A Video Guide to Child Protection Law in BC (video) Legal Aid Can Help Living Together, Living Apart Our Welfare, Our Laws (video) Our Welfare, Our Rights: The Welfare Appeal Process (video) All LawLINE/LawLINK promotional material (bookmark, notepad) Most of the refugee fact sheets have now been replaced by the new booklet Your Guide to the Refugee Claim Process (in simplified Chinese, English, and Spanish). Only one of the fact sheets (#3, in traditional Chinese) and the Personal Information Form are still accurate. Please recycle any copies you have of: Refugee Fact Sheet #1: Starting a Refugee Claim Refugee Fact Sheet #2: Legal Help and Other Services for Refugee Claimants Refugee Fact Sheet #3: How to Fill Out a Personal Information Form Note: Continue using the traditional Chinese version of fact sheet #3. Refugee Fact Sheet #4: A Guide to Humanitarian and Compassionate Applications Refugee Fact Sheet #5: A Guide to Pre-Removal Risk Assessment

July 15, 2009

Resources for clients with credit/debt issues

In these tough economic times, you probably have lots of clients asking you for information about credit and debt issues. Here are a few current print, Web, and telephone resources that you could refer them to.

LSS has three useful publications:

Consumer Law and Credit/Debt Law: This manual for advocates, lawyers, counsellors, and other intermediaries contains useful sections on bankruptcy, creditors, debtors, and mortgages and foreclosures, among others.
Can’t Pay Your Mortgage: What You Can Do If You're Facing Foreclosure: This booklet is available online only, but is currently being revised and will be available in print later this year.
Aboriginal People and the Law in BC: This manual for legal advocates contains sections on bankruptcy, debt, and consumer issues for Aboriginal people.

For clients who owe money to ICBC, see "When ICBC Does Not Issue or Renew a Driver's Licence due to 'Motor Vehicle Indebtedness'" on the Office of Superintendent of Motor Vehicles website.

For clients who have been charged with shoplifting and received associated "civil demand recovery" letters, see the links provided on the LawLINE FAQ page on the LSS website.

The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Canada website contains useful information. See also the Business Practices & Consumer Protection Authority website.

The Canadian Bar Association has some useful scripts on the Dial-A-Law page of their website. In particular, see scripts #252: "Harassment by Debt Collectors" and #253: "When You Can’t Pay Your Debts." You can also listen to these scripts over the phone by calling 604-687-4680 or 1-800-565-5297 (call no charge, outside the Lower Mainland).

The online UBC Law Students Advice Manual contains useful information in Chapter 10: "Creditors’ Remedies & Debtors’ Assistance."

The Credit Counselling Society is a good resource for anyone who needs help with debt problems. Call 604-527-8999 or 1-888-527-8999 (no charge). They might help create a budget and make a payment plan for debtors. Sometimes they can negotiate that the principal only is payable on a debt. They can help to consolidate debts and will often help by distributing one monthly payment that the client makes to them to the client's various creditors. The first session is free, and after that there is a small charge for their services. They also have a useful website.

Clients who have taken out payday loans might want to instruct their bank to stop payment on a cheque, close the account that the payday loan company knows about, or cancel a wage assignment that they may have already signed. However, the clients should get some legal advice before taking any of these actions. At present, payday lenders cannot sue in Small Claims Court, but this could change in the future.

For more information, call LawLINE or check out the Clicklaw website.

Hot off the press from LSS

We've recently completed two booklets in the "What to Do If You Are Charged with…" series: there is a new booklet called What to Do If You Are Charged with a Breach of a Court Order and What to Do If You Are Charged with Assault has been revised and updated.

Each of these booklets describes what happens if someone is charged with one of these offences. They are intended for people who plan to represent themselves in court because they want to plead not guilty to the charge, aren't covered by legal aid, and can’t afford a lawyer. (Breach charges are no longer covered by legal aid, even if the individual faces other outstanding charges or risks jail.) These guides describe what the offences are, what the prosecutor must prove in court, how the accused can defend themselves, and what their possible sentences could be if they are found guilty.

Introducing RSS feeds on the Family Law in BC website

Over the past few years, you may have seen the RSS logo (see above) beside a link to "subscribe to get updates" appearing more often when you browse the Internet. Some of you may already be familiar with this term and subscribing to updates from many Web pages. Some may still be wondering what it's all about.

The term RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. An RSS feed pulls in fresh content from a Web page automatically to let you know that the site has been updated.

By subscribing to RSS feeds, you can find out right away when anything has been changed on a website and see exactly what the new content is. We've recently added RSS feeds to the What's new pages on the Family Law in BC website (What’s new on the Family Law website and What’s new in family law). Each feed contains a direct link to the new or revised page.

You can subscribe to RSS feeds in your Web browser or have the updates sent to your Outlook e-mail inbox. Our instructions on How to subscribe to RSS feeds from the Family Law website (PDF) can walk you through subscribing in either Internet Explorer or Microsoft Outlook.

LSS publication distribution will be moving in September

The Legal Services Society (LSS) is committed to providing publication distribution services in the most cost-effective manner possible. Accordingly, in mid-September, we will be moving our publication distribution service off site to Crown Publications.

Once this service has moved, you will be able to order LSS publications online, and by e-mail, phone, fax, or mail in the same way as you do now. We will provide more details about the implementation, including the new address and contact information, in the September ELAN.

There will be a transition period, but if you send requests to LSS for publications during this period, we will forward them to Crown Publications, and the switchover ought to be relatively seamless.

Chuck it out: Publications and videos to recycle

In this issue, we start the new "Chuck it out" feature to notify you when an LSS publication or video should be discarded and/or replaced by a newer version. In future issues, this list will contain only one or two items, but to start you off, we've listed six months' worth of discarded/outdated items. Please send us an e-mail if you have older publications and you're wondering whether they're still current.

Please recycle the following as they are out of date or contain incorrect content:

For the Sake of Our Children: A Video Guide to Child Protection Law in BC (video)
Legal Aid Can Help
Living Together, Living Apart
Our Welfare, Our Laws (video)
Our Welfare, Our Rights: The Welfare Appeal Process (video)
All LawLINE/LawLINK promotional material (bookmark, notepad)

Most of the refugee fact sheets have now been replaced by the new booklet Your Guide to the Refugee Claim Process (in simplified Chinese, English, and Spanish). Only one of the fact sheets (#3, in traditional Chinese) and the Personal Information Form are still accurate. Please recycle any copies you have of:

Refugee Fact Sheet #1: Starting a Refugee Claim
Refugee Fact Sheet #2: Legal Help and Other Services for Refugee Claimants
Refugee Fact Sheet #3: How to Fill Out a Personal Information Form
Note: Continue using the traditional Chinese version of fact sheet #3.

Refugee Fact Sheet #4: A Guide to Humanitarian and Compassionate Applications
Refugee Fact Sheet #5: A Guide to Pre-Removal Risk Assessment