In it’s most recent annual report, BC’s Legal Services Society, the body responsible for providing legal aid in the province, set overall targets of pleasing just 62 per cent of lawyers and 66 per cent of clients.
The targets are “quite low,” says Cathryn Spracklin, manager of strategic planning and policy at LSS. “We are trying to be realistic about what we can achieve in terms of improving on that baseline, and set our targets accordingly.”
The report also included targets of just 35 and 52 per cent for lawyer and client satisfaction with respect to the level of support provided by LSS to assist clients in resolving related legal issues.
“People’s legal problems don’t occur in isolation,” says Spracklin. “They’re often co-related to issues with poverty, with mental health, [housing], all sorts of things.”
With current satisfaction rates either slightly below or equal to stated targets, achieving these objectives will produce only modest improvements in overall satisfaction, says Spracklin, noting that while funding of legal aid services in the province has declined substantially over recent decades, the number of low-income persons in need of such services has remained constant.
“You can be very poor and still get no assistance,” says Spracklin. “It’s a struggle to try and decide whether you provide a higher level of service to fewer clients, or greater access to service for a higher number.”
Source: Legal Services Society BC, Legal Aid by the Numbers, 2013
Increased access to legal aid
Andrew Pilliar, a Vancouver lawyer and advocate for expanding access to legal aid, says surveys such as those conducted by the LSS are often flawed.
“You don’t get an adequate sample,” says Pilliar, “You get the people who are really pissed off or who are really happy.”
Pilliar also questions the wisdom of setting such low targets.
“I’m not convinced we’re being ambitious enough,” says Pilliar, who believes access to justice and legal aid services should be universal, noting that 45 per cent of all adult Canadians, or roughly 12 million people, have experienced some form of legal need in the past three years alone.
“Legal aid has become an afterthought for most people,” says Pilliar. “Something that they don’t think will apply to them because its only for poor people and criminals.”
But, as Pilliar explains, being charged with a crime is just one reason why someone might require a lawyer. Simple contract disputes – like those related to a lease or mortgage agreement – divorce, and child custody battles are amongst the most common reasons why Canadians seek legal advice – the vast majority of which is paid for out of pocket.
Still, Pilliar says less than 10 per cent of Canadians with legal issues seek the advice of a lawyer – opting instead to represent themselves or resolve their legal issues through alternative, and invariably inferior, means.
Ontario lawyers confront similar problems
While access quality legal aid services has improved significantly in Ontario during the past two decades, the province’s lawyers and clients still face many of the same challenges as those found in BC.
Mark Ertel, a long-time criminal defense lawyer and past president of the Defense Counsel Association of Ottawa, says the costs of running an office, combined with a low hourly rate of pay, make it difficult for lawyers in Ontario to accept legal aid cases.
“We essentially were doing charity work,” says Ertel. “Lawyers were working for $20 an hour, really, and we were getting our cars fixed by guys charging $60 an hour.”
“We’ve done this to these people,” says Ertel, frustrated with the lack of support for legal aid services. “They feel like a welfare case. They’re treated like a welfare case. And so long as they get any kind of representation at all they think it’s great.”
-30-
INFORMATION ON DUCUMENTS
1) What is the information?
A: The documents describe specific performance measures from the most recent Annual Service Plan Report of the Legal Services Society of British Columbia.
2) From which department did these pages come?
A: The pages were prepared by the BC Ministry of Justice for use by the Attorney General in recommending new appointees to the LSS board of directors.
3) Why was this information helpful?
A: I used this information to a) develop a story idea, b) develop specific and targeted questions for interview subjects, and c) to develop a list of possible sources for the production of my story.
Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Online Request
Informal Request for ATI Records Previously Released _ Open Government
FOI Request – Office of the Premier
FOI Request – Jim Sutherland’s emails
FOI Request FNR-2016-61351 – brihill9@gmail