October / November 2008

Public forum on access to justice

The Honourable Beverley McLachlin, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, will be the keynote speaker at a Law Society of BC public forum in January 2009, put on in partnership with the Legal Services Society, SUCCESS, the Western Canada Society to Access Justice, and the CBC.

Moderated by CBC’s Mark Forsythe, host of BC Almanac, Clearing the Path to Justice is a free forum that will explore some of the barriers to accessing the justice system and potential creative solutions to break down those barriers. While it is being held in Vancouver, the Law Society is exploring ways of bringing the forum to the rest of the province via webcasting.

Other distinguished panelists who will bring to the forum their unique perspectives on access to justice are: Grand Chief Edward John of the First Nations Summit of BC; Lyall Knott, QC, of SUCCESS, which runs legal clinics for east Asian speakers in Greater Vancouver in conjunction with Access Justice; and Sue Talia, a private family law judge in California who is an expert on unbundling — an approach to making legal services more affordable and hence more accessible for the average person. She will be speaking about the impact of unbundling on access to justice issues in California, and its effect on the number of litigants who go to court without a lawyer. All of this will be put into the context of unbundling expanding here in BC.

Immediately following the presentations, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions of Chief Justice McLachlin and the other panelists.

To find out more about the forum, including how to register, see the Law Society website.

When?

6:00 – 8:30 pm, January 28, 2009
Registration: 5:30 p.m.

Where?

Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, SFU
580 W. Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC