Access to Justice: Restore legal aid in BC
On November 3, 2009, the Legal Services Society announced further deep cuts to legal aid services in BC, including the elimination of the LawLINE and all but one of the regional legal aid offices as of March 2010.
The following is a summary of our January 2009 letter to the Attorney General of BC. To view the entire letter, which will be sent with the signatures below, please click on "letter" on the left.
The recent continuation of cuts to legal aid in BC will have a devastating impact on women, particularly those living in poverty, women of colour, Aboriginal women, and other marginalized women. These cuts are taking place at a time when Canada is already being criticized for its failure to meet its international obligation to ensure that women have equal access to the justice system.
A recent study released by the Legal Services Society of BC found that more than 80% of low-income British Columbians are dealing with legal issues that are serious and difficult to resolve, yet both the quality and quantity of legal services available to low income people continue to erode. The most recent erosion of legal services in BC includes:
- cuts to the tariffs for family, immigration and criminal law;
- stricter screening processes and eligibility requirements for clients;
- the closing of the family law clinic;
- reductions in staff lawyers; and
- reductions in services for people who cannot access legal representation through LSS, including cuts to the staffing of the LawLINE and family and other duty counsel.
An Ipsos Reid survey commissioned by LSS found that 97% of British Columbians agree that everyone should have access to the justice system and that 78% agree that government should give the same priority to funding legal aid as to other social services such as health care and education. Now is the time to restore services and to begin to develop a comprehensive strategy to build a legal aid system that ensures that women have equal access to the justice system and reflects the needs and values of all British Columbians.
For more information, please vist http://www.westcoastleaf.org/ or
On November 3, 2009, the Legal Services Society announced further deep cuts to legal aid services in BC, including the elimination of the LawLINE and all but one of the regional legal aid offices as of March 2010.
The following is a summary of our January 2009 letter to the Attorney General of BC. To view the entire letter, which will be sent with the signatures below, please click on "letter" on the left.
The recent continuation of cuts to legal aid in BC will have a devastating impact on women, particularly those living in poverty, women of colour, Aboriginal women, and other marginalized women. These cuts are taking place at a time when Canada is already being criticized for its failure to meet its international obligation to ensure that women have equal access to the justice system.
A recent study released by the Legal Services Society of BC found that more than 80% of low-income British Columbians are dealing with legal issues that are serious and difficult to resolve, yet both the quality and quantity of legal services available to low income people continue to erode. The most recent erosion of legal services in BC includes:
- cuts to the tariffs for family, immigration and criminal law;
- stricter screening processes and eligibility requirements for clients;
- the closing of the family law clinic;
- reductions in staff lawyers; and
- reductions in services for people who cannot access legal representation through LSS, including cuts to the staffing of the LawLINE and family and other duty counsel.
An Ipsos Reid survey commissioned by LSS found that 97% of British Columbians agree that everyone should have access to the justice system and that 78% agree that government should give the same priority to funding legal aid as to other social services such as health care and education. Now is the time to restore services and to begin to develop a comprehensive strategy to build a legal aid system that ensures that women have equal access to the justice system and reflects the needs and values of all British Columbians.
For more information, please vist http://www.westcoastleaf.org/ or
The Organizations and Individuals listed below support the following statement:
The recent continuation of cuts to legal aid in BC will have a devastating impact on women, particularly those living in poverty, women of colour, Aboriginal women, and other marginalized women.
These cuts are taking place at a time when Canada is already being criticized for its failure to meet its international obligation to ensure that women have equal access to the justice system.
A recent study released by the Legal Services Society of BC (LSS) found that more than 80% of low-income British Columbians are dealing with legal issues that are serious and difficult to resolve, yet both the quality and quantity of legal services available to low income people continue to erode. The most recent erosion of legal services in BC includes:
- cuts to the tariffs for family, immigration and criminal law;
- stricter screening processes and eligibility requirements for clients;
- the closing of the family law clinic;
- reductions in staff lawyers; and
- reductions in services for people who cannot access legal representation through LSS, including cuts to the staffing of the LawLINE and family and other duty counsel.
Reducing the legal aid tariffs to private bar lawyers is unacceptable. Even at current tariff rates, lawyers cannot effectively serve their clients. The low number of hours funded under the legal aid tariff in family matters, child protection cases, and immigration/refugee cases seriously undermines the capacity of lawyers to provide the quality of legal services low income British Columbians so desperately need.
One impact of the 2002 cuts was to make it challenging for women to find lawyers willing to take legal aid cases in the few instances that women were found eligible for legal aid coverage. These most recent cuts will make that much, much worse.
This latest round of cuts will mean that community groups and women's organizations will be expected to fill an even larger service gap without additional resources or training. Women who are unable to access advocacy services will continue to be forced to navigate the system on their own, with potentially devastating consequences for themselves and their families.
Services provided by staff lawyers, such as those provided through the family law clinic, need to be expanded not eliminated. LSS staff lawyers are able to take cases that private lawyers simply cannot take on with the kind of file management and care many of the clients accessing the clinic require. Most often these are cases that involve critical family issues, that may have been lingering in the system for a long time, and involve complicating factors, such as, insecure immigration status, litigation harassment by an ex partner, a history of domestic violence and/or mental illness.
Cuts to the LawLINE and family law duty counsel, as well as the decision not to proceed with the Justice Access Centre in Vancouver will make it next to impossible to access timely legal information and advice for those who can not afford legal representation, do not qualify for legal representation, or are not aware of community legal services. Significant reductions in extended service referrals for family law, combined with stricter standards for approving immigration referrals will only increase the number of self-represented litigants attempting to navigate the system without support.
The Legal Services Society's position that these cuts are necessary in light of the current fiscal environment ignores the reality that these short-term savings will lead to greater costs down the road. Direct costs to the provincial government will include an increasingly backlogged court system, an increase in health costs (see a recent LSS study on the connection between health and legal problems), and a cost to income assistance programs and other social services. Without legal representation, some women may abandon their fight for the spousal and child support that they are entitled to in law.
There will also be indirect costs to individuals, families and society, including, greater social services costs as women's health and ability to work and care for their children is impacted by legal problems that are left unresolved or unfairly resolved.
It is imperative that this latest round of cuts to legal services in British Columbia be reversed. However, this latest crisis is indicative of a broader failure on the part of both the provincial and the federal governments to ensure equal and adequate access to the justice system. This crisis reflects the continued inability of LSS to fulfill its stated mission: "to provide innovative and collaborative legal aid services that enable people with low incomes to effectively address their issues within the justice system".
In November 2008, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women stated in its Concluding Observations on Canada, "The Committee is concerned at reports that financial support for civil legal aid has diminished and that access to it has become increasingly restricted, in particular in British Columbia, consequently denying low-income women access to legal representation and legal services." This latest round of cuts to legal services in BC demonstrates a lack of commitment on the part of both the LSS and the federal and provincial governments to address the concerns raised by CEDAW.
An Ipsos Reid survey commissioned by LSS found that 97% of British Columbians agree that everyone should have access to the justice system and that 78% agree that government should give the same priority to funding legal aid as to other social services such as health care and education. Now is the time to restore services and to begin to develop a comprehensive strategy to build a legal aid system that ensures that women have equal access to the justice system and reflects the needs and values of all British Columbians.
Justice will not be accessible to the poor if this service is closed. Therefore BC justice won't be just. Thanks You.
The BC government currently collects a 7 per cent tax on legal services that was implemented to fund legal aid services in BC. The Canadian Bar Association calculates that the government raises over $100 million a year with the tax, but last year only transferred just over $67 million to legal aid services. This at the same time as this government cut 40 per cent of Legal Aid services in 2002, and have cut a further $2 million from next year's budget, and told the LSS that they cannot use accumulated surpluses to cover a deficit in the coming year. There is more than enough money to fund legal aid services for British Columbians who otherwise would have no access to the justice system. To do otherwise is to deny citizens one of the basic tenets of democracy -- access to justice. RESTORE LEGAL AID FUNDING NOW!
We cannot say that we live in a true democracy if individuals and groups in our society do not have access to the processes by which the democracy supposedly operates. Denying legal aid and support, particularly to the most marginalized members of our society, is unacceptable. To say that funding cutbacks are necessary given our province's current economic situation is untrue. This is a matter of priorities, and our government is making choices that prioritize values OTHER than respect for basic human rights and dignity.
Legal Aid is a neccesity for any democracy. A few years back, my Mother passed away from cancer. I was on a leave from work during this time. When I returned to Victoria a few days after her death, I found a letter from my employer's lawyer, stating that I had been absent without permission. I had one day in which to unpack, find all my "in storage" employment related documents and contact legal aid. Their office helped me to keep my benefits, maintain my good standing with Service Canada and prove that I had in fact provided my employer with more than sufficient medical documentation and personal updates. Had it not be available to me, my status with E.I. may have been permanantly affected. Most people seeking Legal Aid are there because they cannot afford a legal attorney and have pressing emergency health or family situations. Every week I read about more and more cutbacks; the brunt of which will surely fall on the middle-class. We are already experiencing signifigant hardships, layoffs, sickness and inflation. This government is callous and they have forgotten that their job is to provide responsible leadership. Thank you, Janet Grace.
Denying the most vulnerable people in our society legal aid is not a viable solution to reduce government spending. The number of unrepresented litigants in family and criminal court impacts the judiciary, court services, lawyers, and clients. People who cannot afford counsel are often those who are the most in need of legal representation.
accessibility and equity
The marginalization of women and the poor is a reality. Our society has created these inequites and our society should have accessible services for individuals to have their cases heard. A financial or buearucratic barrier to justice is unjust.
It's unfair that justice is for the rich.
Get out of the stone age!
I am concerned that the elimination of any alternative dispute services in child protection matters will mean lengthy delays in settling matters with the result of more children in foster care for longer periods of time.
I am a Victim Service Worker who already sees an exsisting gap in service for marganalized women that need legal service. As it stands now in order to receive legal aid a womans partner needs to have been charged with assault in order for the woman to be eligible. I see many women that are being mentaly and emotionaly abused by their partners, have left the abusive partner, and need legal assistance with custody and access for their children. These women have no legal avenue as they do not qualify for legal aid,and duty counsel provides limited time. With the further cuts to service the situation for these women will get worse, and it will be the Women and Children who suffer. Legal aid services need to be expanded to women not cut.
We cannot call ourselves a JUST society if we systemically silence the voices of those without equal power, access, or resources.
We cannot , and should not abandon, the most vulnerable memebers of our community.
In a society that is truly 'just', there must be equal legal support for all.
It's appalling that our government simply ignores the unique needs of women & children who are particularly affected by cuts to legal aid.
As a memeber of the groundbreaking Justice Access Centre project in Nanaimo, it is heart wrenching to realize the more than 4300 people served in our centre in a year will be cast into the shadows yet again....
The poor need to be able to solve their legal problems and without specific help their problems only escalate.
I am deeply concerned about reduced access to justice in BC due to the recent cuts to basic free legal services like the LawLine. Having to pay for a lawyer means that marginalized and low income indigenous women and women of color would not be able to afford the costs associated with a human rights case. This is very discouraging as it directly amounts to further marginalization of those who are already facing systemic discrimination and human rights abuses and have limited resources to address or challenge these abuses. There should be an increase in funding to legal services, not cuts, as there is an increase in the levels of poverty, homelessness and unemployment, three of the many systemic issues faced by indigenous women and women of color in the province.
I work as a counsellor for women who have been abused by their husbands or partners. Many of these women end up living in poverty and unable to pay for legal counsel in custody cases regarding their children. I've heard one too many stories about the abusive man with the job and status getting more access or custody than he deserves....
All women and men must have legal access, equally, irrespective of financial ability.
I do research on women's substance use, and many women with substance use problems need legal aid to assist them to retain custody of their children.
The difference between the "have's" and "have not's" is a matter of "investment." If we don't invest in the "have not's" of our society, we perpetuate and we collectively suffer (at varying levels) the problems that lack of investment creates. Why don't governments spend their funds more wisely ... and invest in who and what makes up their country? At all levels? Go for a Golden Age ... not the widening gaps in living circumstances. Be a leader. Have vision. Take us, all of us, to a Golden Age ... and to realizing a Global Golden Age.
As a civilized society it is important to preserve the rights of those most in need. Access to justice is crucial for women living in poverty and their children. Denying these women advocacy, knowledge and legal aid reflects badly on the priorities of our province.
I assist child victims in preparing to testify in court. I was shocked to find out that the court-based program that educates child and adult victims about the court process has been cancelled due to funding cuts. These cuts to legal aid and legal services are not just an injustice to those who need and deserve financial support. Without proper victim witness preparation, the integrity and effectiveness of the criminal justice will be compromised.
Women living in poverty have the greatest need of social and legal support mechanisms. This further erosion of legal aid and support is another blow to an already deeply disadvantaged population. Please restore this funding!
I agree with the letter written by West Coast LEAF. I realize we are in economic times that require tough choices. But, these choices must be carefully considered. The future of our society is largely affected by what happens to those who are at some time most vulnerable. If we want a province comprised of people who can contribute meaningfully to society, we cannot ignore them when they desperately need assistance in their growth towards becoming such people. A family analogy is appropriate here. If as you raise your children, you turn away from them when they need comfort and withhold food when they are hungry, are you surprised years later when they have far greater needs than a hug or a hot meal? We need to be there for people in our society during their times of vulnerability. It is up to a responsible and forward-thinking government to ensure that this important work is done. Further reducing legal aid, and specifically aid that assists people at times when they are most vulnerable, is backward and irresponsible.
I am strongly in favour of strengthening legal service support for those without the means to pay private rates. Women in particular will be disproportionately affected by the proposed cuts.
