The Access to Justice campaign has spawned The Coalition For Public Legal Services (CPLS) – a group of organizations, advocates, and volunteers working to restore BC’s commitment to legal aid.

All news items and updates will now be posted on the Coalition website at http://www.cplsbc.ca and on our new blog at http://www.cplbsbc.ca/blog

If you are interested in joining the coalition as an organization or an individual, we invite you to contact us for more information.

Kamloops lawyer Brenda Muliner calls it “1-800-WHO-CARES.”

“If you phone that number and you’re from Kamloops, it says go to the legal-aid office — and gives you the address that is now closed,” says Muliner.

Last Friday, six legal-aid offices in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Victoria, Nanaimo and Surrey shut. Just two offices remain — in Vancouver and Terrace.

Muliner blames Victoria and its “total lack of commitment to funding.”

Total funding — government and private — for legal aid was $77.8 million last fiscal year, compared with $101 million in 2001/02.

To protest the cuts, she’s among a group of defence lawyers in Kamloops who are on a “duty counsel strike.”

The closures come as the civil-advice program, LawLINE, which handled 6,200 calls last year, was also scrapped. The line was funded by non-government sources.

Both cuts come as demand for legal aid is rising and the impact is being felt by thousands of B.C.’s most vulnerable, says Leonard Krog, NDP critic for the attorney-general’s ministry. He says cuts are eroding public access to justice.

“When you cut legal aid, you’re not affecting the millionaires on Howe Street,” Krog adds.

The closed offices will be replaced by a single “agent,” a private lawyer who contracts with the Legal Services Society. The agent’s primary job is to help process applications. In Surrey, a private law firm has been contracted.

LawLINE, which dispensed help in civil matters, was considered a “band-aid” solution in 2002, a response then to funding cuts, Krog says.

Mark Benton, executive director of the Legal Services Society, the non-profit group that runs legal aid, says government funding for legal aid has remained fairly stable over the past three years, but demand has increased.

Benton says the office closures will save about $1.6 million, which will be funnelled into core services, such as family and criminal duty counsel.

Demand for legal aid has risen significantly. Restraining orders went up 20 per cent in 2008 “and we weren’t about to say, ‘We’re not going to give you any service,’” explained Benton.

“This is a very sad day” says Kathleen Kendall, President of the Professional Employees Association, the union representing the lawyers working for LSS. “With the closure of these regional legal aid offices, the LawLINE, and CASL, accessing justice will become much harder for those requiring legal aid.”

In April of 2009, LSS made huge reductions in staffing and services due to budget shortfalls. Six months later, a second round of cuts was announced which takes effect today through the closure of regional centres in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Surrey, and Victoria, and the two legal aid phone lines.

“Since April of 2009, LSS has reduced its collection of staff lawyers from 32 to 21, and as of the end of the day today, only 5 remain” tells Kendall, who is also a staff lawyer working her last day today in the Kamloops LSS office.

Employees at the Legal Services Society will be holding a small information rally today at noon in front of the organization’s Downtown Vancouver headquarters at 510 Burrard St.
The Professional Employees Association is an independent union representing professionals in B.C.’s public and private sectors, including lawyers at the Legal Services Society of B.C.

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For more information, please contact:
Jodi Jensen
Executive Director
Professional Employees Association
250.385.8791

From Kamloops This Week:

As duty-counsel job action continues, B.C.’s attorney general is looking to alternative revenue sources to top up legal-aid funding.

On Monday, Mike de Jong met with members of the Kamloops Bar Association, which has been withholding duty-counsel services since January to protest the closure of the local legal-aid office.

Due to increased financial pressures, the Legal Services Society (LSS), which handles legal-aid referrals across the province, is closing five regional offices, including Kamloops, on March 31.

“I don’t want to pretend everyone left saying we solved all the problems,” de Jong told KTW after the meeting.

“But we have agreed on some of the things we need to do to move forward, identify where some of these solutions might lie and where we might begin to identify some additional resources.”

The office closure goes beyond one issue, he said, and has been exacerbated by the fact the LSS relies in part on interest-based sources of funding from the Law Foundation and the Notary Foundation.

“And with the interest-rate drop, that funding has all but dried up,” he said.

The society receives the bulk of its funding from the province — about $66 million this year — but a significant amount comes from the other sources.

However, de Jong said the government cannot increase funding while trying to balance the budget.

“At a time when we’re struggling with a $1.7-billion deficit, the province hasn’t been in a position to step forward and make up the difference — therein lies the challenge.”

What it boils down to, he said, is the need to find alternate sources of revenue.

One idea de Jong suggested is to ensure all fines and sanctions are taxed.

“The judge has the option to apply that surcharge — maybe that’s a source,” he said.

“That’s new incremental revenue we could draw on that doesn’t simply take from elsewhere in the budget.”

However, nothing is definite at this point and, in the meantime, an agent has been appointed to look after legal-aid issues.

De Jong said there are two dozen communities in B.C. served through an agency model.

“When confronted with limited resources — and when Legal Services Society believes it can help more people by going to an agency model — in these difficult times, that’s what we’re going to opt to do.”

CPLS consists of 18 member organizations across the province, including the Professional Employees Association, advocating for public legal services. The Coalition has embarked on a campaign to gain support from stakeholders internal and external to BC’s justice system, including various municipalities.

Over the last several weeks, CPLS members have brought issues surrounding access to justice to the attention of council members in Nanaimo, Vancouver, and Kamloops. The next city to have a similar motion presented to council is Victoria.

We invite all PEA members in the CRD to come to the Victoria City Council meeting when the motion is presented on Thursday, March 11, 2010, at 7:30PM to show your support for your fellow PEA members working for the Legal Services Society of BC. We also extend this invitation to any supporters of BC’s legal aid system. This meeting takes place at Victoria City Hall (1 Centennial Square, Victoria BC).

Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

• Economy cuts into legal services – From the Vancouver Sun
• Justice Access Centre will not be closing down – From the Nanaimo Daily News

Family lawyer Brenda Muliner got her wish Tuesday when she requested City council’s backing to keep the Kamloops regional legal aid office open.

Muliner told council five of the province’s six regional offices are slated to close soon. That would leave only the regional office in Terrace and the main one in Vancouver open.

Muliner said cuts to legal aid services have already had an impact on people who can’t afford a lawyer. Trials that would normally take two days now take four because people are unrepresented in court.

That leads to increased court costs for the legal system. And society’s most vulnerable people who cannot get help when they most need it, she said.

Coun. Nancy Bepple moved to write a letter of support stating council wants to see the Kamloops regional legal aid office kept open.

Coun. Marg Spina agreed. Having people phone for help long-distance isn’t providing a service, she said.

“Everyone’s had experiences with 1-800-who-cares?” she said.

Council voted unanimously to send the letter.

Coalition member Brenda Muliner was in attendance at the meeting.

Way to go Kamloops!

• Reduction in legal aid makes help inaccessible
• Legal aid cuts burden on court system

CPLS member Brenda Muliner will present to Kamloops City Council next week, Feb. 16th.